Floating-gate devices, circuits, and systems

This paper describes our programmable analog technology based around floating-gate transistors that allow for non-volatile storage as well as computation through the same device. We describe the basic concepts for floating-gate devices, capacitor-based circuits, and the basic charge modification mechanisms that makes this analog technology programmable. We describe the techniques to extend these techniques to program an nonhomogenious array of floating-gate devices.

I. Impact of Programmable Analog Circuits

Over the last decade floating-gate circuit approaches have progressed from a few foundational academic results [1], [2] to a stable circuit and system technology with both academic and industrial applications. This programmable analog technology empowers analog signal processing approaches programmable precision analog low-power techniques. An analog technology that is programmable can enable analog components to be seen as nearly user-friendly as configurable digital options. This approach allows power efficient computing for analog signal processing of 1000 to 10,000 times more efficient than custom digital computation, making a range of portable applications not possible for over a decade a possibility today.