# Patent

## Title
Methods and apparatus for ultra-low leakage analog storage

## Abstract

An analog storage cell circuit includes a switch that minimizes subthreshold conduction and diode leakage, as well as an accumulation-mode coupling mechanism to minimize overall switch leakage to minimize accumulation-mode leakage. In one embodiment, an analog storage circuit includes a sample and hold circuit including an amplifier having first and second inputs and a switch coupled to the first input of the amplifier. The switch includes a first switching device forming a core of the switch, a second switching device coupled to the first switching device to disconnect the first switching device from a first terminal during the hold phase, and a third switching device coupled to the first switching device to connect the first switching device to a second terminal during the hold phase to minimize accumulation mode conduction in the first switching device.

## Background
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/620,911, filed on Oct. 21, 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference.


STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
The Government may have certain rights in the invention pursuant to Contract No. NSF CCR-0122419 with the NSF and N00014-02-0434 with the ONR.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As is known in the art, many modem analog CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) circuits employ temporary analog storage to counteract circuit offsets and store signal variables and implement adaptation and learning. Offset correction and signal storage are common applications of temporary analog storage due to their widespread use in switched capacitor circuits, and straightforward implementation is possible using only a capacitor and a MOS switch. This form of storage is a very compact, low-power, and precise storage technique, but is useful only for relatively short time scales since the OFF state leakage of the MOS switch quickly degrades the stored charge.
So-called medium-term capacitive storage cells extend the storage time of short-term cells by reducing MOS switch leakage, and are often used in adaptive circuit design. Many leakage-reduction techniques have been proposed. However, these techniques do not focus on characterizing the switch leakage as a function of terminal voltages.
Long-term cells extend the storage times of short-term cells by completely counteracting MOS leakage rather than simply reducing it. Some cells counteract leakage by periodically quantizing the capacitor voltage using some form of analog-to-digital conversion. This scheme has the disadvantages of added circuit complexity and power due to both the analog-to-digital converter and the bussing required for multiplexing the converter between cells. A further long-term storage approach is to eliminate the MOS switch altogether by employing floating-gate technology. Disadvantages of this scheme include high voltages required for writing to the cells, slow write times, and additional supporting circuitry and bussing to accomplish the writing.
SUMMARY
The present invention provides an analog storage cell having a switch to minimize leakage current. In general, the switch minimizes subthreshold conduction and diode leakage, as well as an accumulation-mode coupling mechanism to minimize overall switch leakage. With this arrangement, leakage performance can be significantly enhanced over previously known designs. While the invention is primarily shown and described in conjunction with certain transistors and switch configurations, it is understood that the invention is applicable to circuits in general in which it is desirable to minimize leakage currents.
In one aspect of the invention, an analog storage cell circuit includes a sample and hold circuit including an amplifier having first and second inputs, a sampling capacitor, a sample phase and a hold phase, and a switch coupled to the first input of the amplifier. In one embodiment, the switch includes a first switching device forming a core of the switch, a second switching device coupled to the first switching device to disconnect the first switching device from a first terminal during the hold phase, and a third switching device coupled to the first switching device to connect the first switching device to a second terminal during the hold phase to minimize accumulation mode conduction in the first switching device. In one particular embodiment, the first terminal corresponds to an output of the amplifier and the second terminal corresponds to a supply voltage.
The cell circuit can further include a further switching device coupled between the first switching device and the first input of the amplifier to provide charge injection cancellation for the first switching element where the cell circuit has a single-sided structure. In one embodiment, the cell circuit has less than 45 aA leakage with a single-sided structure.
In another aspect of the invention, the analog storage cell circuit has a differential configuration. In one embodiment, the cell circuit has less than 10 aA leakage at room temperature.
In a further aspect of the invention, a method includes coupling, to form an analog storage cell circuit, a switch to a sample and hold circuit, the switch including a first switching device forming a core of the switch, a second switching device coupled to the first switching device to disconnect the first switching device from a first terminal during the hold phase, and a third switching device coupled to the first switching device to connect the first switching device to a second terminal during the hold phase to minimize accumulation mode conduction in the first switching device.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing features of this invention, as well as the invention itself, maybe more fully understood from the following description of the drawings in which:
FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of a prior art MOS switch;
FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of a further prior art switch;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a MOS leakage test structure;
FIG. 3 is a graphical depiction of ID versus VGS for five NMOS switches;
FIG. 4 is a graphical depiction of ID versus VGS for NMOS switches in accumulation mode;
FIG. 5 is a graphical depiction of ID versus VSB for NMOS switches;
FIG. 6 is a pictorial representation of an empirical model of accumulation mode NMOS leakage sources;
FIG. 7 is a graphical depiction of ID versus VDB for five PMOS switches;
FIG. 8 is a high-level schematic diagram of a switched-capacitor storage cell;
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a PMOS-input cascoded wide-output swing OTA;
FIG. 10A is a schematic diagram of a low-leakage low-charge-injection switch for a single-sided cell;
FIG. 10B is a schematic diagram of a low-leakage switch for a differential cell;
FIG. 10C shows the switch of FIG. 10A in the circuit of FIG. 8;
FIG. 10D shows the switch of FIG. 10B in the circuit of FIG. 11;
FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a partial differential switched-capacitor storage cell;
FIG. 12 is a graphical depiction of a difference between input and stored voltage in a single-sided cell;
FIG. 13 is a graphical depiction of output voltage versus time for a single-sided cell leakage;
FIG. 14 is a graphical depiction of a difference between input and stored voltage in a differential cell;
FIG. 15 is a graphical depiction of differential cell leakage; and
FIG. 16 is a pictorial representation of a die having a differential cell.



DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Before describing the invention in detail, some introductory information is presented. Medium-term analog storage cells achieve extended hold times by reducing the MOS-switch leakage current that degrades the cell's capacitively held charge. The lowest-leakage storage cell implementations have employed several different techniques to reduce switch leakage. These techniques are briefly reviewed below, and then a unified framework for comparing the performance of past implementations, which were fabricated in various technologies, is introduced.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show known low-leakage MOS switches used in analog storage cells. FIG. 1A shows a transmission gate switch 10 and two leakage currents, Ilk,n and Ilk,p, that can flow to Vout even when the switch is off. Leakage current Ilk,n flows from Vout to ground through the NMOS drain-to-bulk diode and Ilk,p flows from VDD to Vout through the PMOS drain-to-bulk diode. Since only the difference between these two leakage currents, Ilk,net, reaches Vout, it is possible to ratio the junction areas to counterbalance these leakages to the first order.
Note that a given junction area ratio minimizes the net leakage for only one particular value of Vout, however typical high-performance storage cell topologies ensure this voltage remains fixed, independent of the stored analog voltage, allowing the area ratio to be optimized for one value of Vout. This structure can be implemented in 2 μm CMOS exhibiting a net leakage current of 1 fA (all currents are inferred from measured memory cell voltage leakage rates and storage capacitor sizes). It is known that the same structure implemented in 1.2 μm CMOS yields 4.5 fA of leakage current, while a fully differential storage cell, which only responds to differential leakage, can use a pair of these low-leakage transmission gates to achieve a net differential leakage of 0.08 fA.
A second known low-leakage switch topology 50 is shown in FIG. 1B. The switch 50 is formed by a single transistor 52, in this case an NMOS transistor, fabricated inside a well to allow the transistor bulk voltage to differ from the substrate voltage. A disadvantage of this switch is that it lacks the rail-to-rail input-output range of a transmission gate. However, as was mentioned above, typical storage cell topologies force Vout to remain constant rendering this limitation irrelevant as long as Vout is chosen within the allowable range of the switch. Additionally, with Vout constant, the bulk can be driven with an identical voltage V′out to minimize the drain-to-bulk diode leakage. NMOS versions of this low-leakage switch structure have been used in a fully differential storage cell implemented in 3-μm CMOS. The cell also attempts to minimize subthreshold leakage by driving the transistor gates below the bulk to turn them off and achieves a typical net differential leakage of 1.6 fA.
It is instructive to compare these measured leakages with estimates of what could theoretically be achieved in each technology. Suppose the switch is implemented using a single minimum-sized MOS transistor and all MOS-related switch leakage, such as subthreshold conduction, is eliminated. Then the only remaining leakage would be due to the drain-to-bulk junction diode. The fully reverse-biased leakage per unit area of this junction in a modern process is roughly 0.02 fA/μm2 at room temperature, with this value having decreased by a factor of two to three in the past ten years as technology has improved. Using appropriately scaled versions of this nominal leakage parameter for older processes, the estimated leakage of a minimum-sized (6λ×5 λ in MOSIS scalable design rules) reverse-biased drain-to-bulk diode in each technology of interest is calculated in Table I below.







TABLE I







ESTIMATED REVERSE-BIAS LEAKAGE CURRENT OF


MINIMUM-SIZED DRAIN-TO-BULK JUNCTIONS FOR SEVERAL


TECHNOLOGIES. THE PRE-CONSTANTS IN THE LEAKAGE


PER UNIT AREA COLUMN ARE INCLUDED TO ROUGHLY


ACCOUNT FOR TECHNOLOGY AGE














Scaled Reverse-
Total




Minimum Junction
Biased Junction
Estimated



Lambda
Area
Leakage Per
Junction



(λ)
(6 λ × 5 λ = 30 λ2)
Unit Area
Leakage











Technology











  3 μm
 1.5 μm
67.5 μm2
4 × (0.02fA/μm2)
 5.4 fA


  2 μm
  1 μm
  30 μm2
3 × (0.02fA/μm2)
 1.8 fA


1.5 μm
0.75 μm
16.9 μm2
2 × (0.02fA/μm2)
0.68 fA


1.2 μm
 0.6 μm
10.8 μm2
2 × (0.02fA/μm2)
0.43 fA









Before these estimates of nominal leakage current can be compared to the measured results from above, the leakage-reduction techniques employed in each implementation should be taken into account. The following assumptions will be made about the effectiveness of the techniques employed. It will be assumed that both counterbalancing NMOS and PMOS leakages and implementing the storage cell differentially achieve 80% matching accuracy, and therefore applying either technique will reduce the leakage to 20% of its starting value. Drain-to-bulk voltage minimization is typically accomplished using an amplifier in feedback, and therefore brings the two terminals no closer than the input-offset voltage of the amplifier employed, which will be assumed to be 5 mV. This level of bias across the diode can be shown to yield an 80% reduction in diode current when compared to full reverse-bias.
Applying the relevant reduction factors from above to the nominal reverse-biased diode leakages from Table I, a conservative upper bound on the leakage current expected in each implementation is calculated in Table II below. Also listed in the table are the currents that were measured in each implementation, which in all cases are at least 2.5 times larger than the generous estimates of the leakage upper bounds. These results suggest that additional leakage mechanisms, probably due to the MOS structure, exist and have not been compensated for in these implementations.







TABLE II







ESTIMATED UPPER BOUND ON LEAKAGE AND ACHIEVED


LEAKAGE FOR THREE MEMORY CELLS














Estimated







Junction




Leakage

Estimated
Achieved



Compensation
(From
Scaling
Net
Net



Methods
Table I)
Factor
Leakage
Leakage











Technology












  3 μm
Minimum
 5.4 fA
(0.2)(0.2)
 0.22 fA
 1.6 fA



Drain-to-Bulk



Voltage;



Differential


  2 μm
N & P
 1.8 fA
(0.2)
 0.36 fA
  1 fA



Counterbalance


1.2 μm
N&P
0.43 fA
(0.2)(0.2)
0.017 fA
0.08 fA



Counter-



balance;



Differential









The dominant sources of leakage in MOS devices can be characterized in a standard 1.5-m CMOS n-well double-poly process. The goal of these measurements is to establish a list of guidelines that should be followed to achieve minimum switch leakage and thus maximum storage times with a given capacitance. The measurements also reveal a MOS leakage mechanism.
Direct measurement of sub-pA level currents is tedious to perform in the laboratory, even with a sufficiently accurate electrometer. At these current levels, the resistance of many common laboratory insulators is non-negligible, requiring careful design of the entire test setup to ensure insulator leakage does not affect the measurement. Additionally, external electrical interference must be completely eliminated as even faint signals can easily corrupt the measurement. Within an integrated circuit, however, fA-level currents can be accurately conveyed across the die and the entire die can be shielded from interference by placing it in a grounded metal box. Because of this, measuring MOS leakage currents using on-chip circuitry can yield a level of accuracy that may be difficult to achieve with an off-chip electrometer. As was alluded to earlier, capacitive current integration offers a simple on-chip mechanism for indirectly measuring low current levels. It avoids off-chip error sources by first time-integrating the small current within the low-noise on-chip environment to yield voltage movements of a sufficient magnitude that they can be reliably measured in the relatively noisy off-chip environment.
FIG. 2 shows an exemplary current-integrator leakage tester having an integrating capacitor Cint and a PMOS-input fully cascoded wide-output swing operational transconductance amplifier OTA. In the illustrative embodiment, the device under test (DUT) is an NMOS transistor, but the same structure can also be used to characterize PMOS leakage. The current-integrator topology, when built using a high-gain amplifier, possesses several features related to the operation of the leakage tester. For example, the negative input terminal of the OTA servos to Vref (plus the OTA's input-offset voltage) as long as the amplifier output is not railed, which allows for indirect control of Vd, the DUT drain voltage. Further, any current Id that flows into the DUT drain will be immediately integrated on Cint, causing a change in Vout but virtually no change in Vd. Also, the rate of change of Vout is related to Cint as shown in Equation 1 below independent of capacitances from Vd and Vout to ground.




  
    
      
        
          [
          
            
              d
              
                V
                out
              
            
            
              d
              t
            
          
          ]
        
        =
        
          
            I
            d
          
          
            C
            int
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Eq
        .
        
          
        
        ⁢
        
          (
          1
          )
        
      
    
  




In addition, a constant-current load at the integrator output due to an off-chip instrument monitoring Vout causes only a constant voltage offset error, which has no effect on the measured dVout/dt.

Using the leakage tester presented above, the DUT drain current can be evaluated as a function of the four MOS terminal voltages by iteratively applying the following procedure. At the start of each test run, initialize the leakage tester so that the four terminals of the DUT are at the required test voltage levels, and the output of the integrator sits halfway between the circuit rails, at VDD/2. This initialization is accomplished by temporarily using the DUT as a switch to reset the voltage across Cint. After initialization, measure the time rate-of-change of Vout with an off-chip electrometer. Using this slope measurement and the value of Cint, the current Id can be indirectly evaluated using Equation 1 above.
In order to obtain accurate results with the leakage tester, Cint must be accurately known. Therefore, a capacitor calibration structure was implemented on each of the test die using two package pins, PA and PB, with nominally identical package-related capacitances. Pin PA's associated die-level bond pad was connected to the top plate of a calibration capacitor Ccal whose layout is identical to that of Cint. The bottom plate of Ccal was grounded. Pin PB's associated die-level bond pad was not connected to any other die-level structure. By measuring the difference in capacitance between pins PA and PB, an estimate of Ccal (and thus Cint) can be obtained that should be independent of package and die-level parasitic capacitances to first order. Using this calibration structure and an LCR meter, the fabricated values of Cint were all measured in the range 6.072 pF±0.04 pF. The median value of Cint=6.072 pF was used to infer the leakage data.
Transistor drain leakage is typically modeled as the combination of two separate phenomena: diode leakage and subthreshold conduction. Drain-to-bulk diode leakage for nonzero drain-to-bulk voltages was discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 1A-B. In an NMOS, this current can be modeled to first order by the ideal diode equation set forth below in Equation 2.

IDB=−Is[e−VDB/Vt−1]  Eq. (2)

where IDB is the diode current and VDB the applied voltage, Is is the diode saturation current and is a constant proportional to a linear combination of the junction area and perimeter, and is the thermal voltage (roughly 26 mV at T=300K).

The second source of leakage is due to subthreshold conduction. Equation 3 below describes the drain-to-source current, IDS, of a subthreshold (VGS<<VTS) NMOS transistor:




  
    
      
        
          I
          DS
        
        =
        
          
            I
            os
          
          ⁢
          
            W
            L
          
          ⁢
          
            e
            
              
                -
                κ
              
              ⁢
              
                
              
              ⁢
              
                
                  V
                  TS
                
                /
                Vt
              
            
          
          ⁢
          
            
              e
              
                κ
                ⁢
                
                  
                
                ⁢
                
                  
                    V
                    GS
                  
                  /
                  
                    V
                    t
                  
                
              
            
            ⁡
            
              (
              
                1
                -
                
                  e
                  
                    
                      -
                      
                        V
                        DS
                      
                    
                    /
                    Vt
                  
                
              
              )
            
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Eq
        .
        
          
        
        ⁢
        
          (
          3
          )
        
      
    
  




where IOS is a process-dependent current-scaling constant, VTS is the transistor's threshold voltage, W/L is its width over length ratio, and κ is a parameter that is a function of the applied source-to-bulk voltage and has a magnitude less than one. The threshold voltage VTS is defined by the body-effect relation express in Equation 4.

VTS=VTO+γ(√{square root over (φ0+VSB)}−√{square root over (φ0)})  Eq. (4)

The threshold voltage VTS is a function of the nominal threshold voltage VTO, which is fixed for a given technology, the applied source-to-bulk voltage, VSB and γ and φ0, which are process-dependent parameters.

Since the drain leakage is the sum of these two leakage mechanisms, subthreshold conduction can be made negligible by reducing VGS until IDS<<IDB. The VGS at which this happens has several dependencies. For example, it is a weak function of IDB—if the diode leakage is reduced VGS must decrease to ensure that subthreshold conduction remains small enough to be ignored. In addition, it depends linearly on the transistor's nominal threshold voltage since IDS is a function of the difference between VGS and VTS. Therefore, as the threshold voltages of modem processes decrease to enable low-voltage design, the VGS at which subthreshold conduction can be ignored is steadily decreasing. The net result of this trend is that in most modem processes the subthreshold current and diode leakage equalize at a VGS<0. Due to this effect, most modem NMOS transistors that are digitally OFF (VGS=VSB=0V) but have nonzero VDS will conduct with a level of IDS several orders of magnitude larger than IDB.
The tradeoff between diode leakage and subthreshold conduction outlined above appears to be experimentally verified in FIG. 3. This figure shows the measured ID versus VGS characteristics of five different minimum-sized NMOS transistors with VS=VB=0V and VDS=150 mV. The current ID (always referenced with respect to the direction shown in FIG. 2) varies exponentially with the gate-to-source voltage from VGS>−200 mV indicating subthreshold conduction dominates in this region, and remains roughly constant for VGS<−400 mV where diode leakage apparently dominates. Thus, one method of minimizing NMOS subthreshold conduction in this process is to bias VGS<−400 mV. Note that in this particular example, the gate would have to be driven to a voltage outside the range of the existing rail voltages to avoid subthreshold conduction. An alternate method of avoiding subthreshold leakage was employed in the transmission gate switch shown in FIG. 1A. Since it is the difference between VGS and VTS that controls IDS, subthreshold current can be reduced by increasing VTS, or equivalently VSB. For large enough VSB, this technique allows subthreshold conduction to be made negligible for a level of VGS≧0V. Shifting Vs has the added benefit of allowing for levels of VGS<0V without the need to drive the NMOS gate below the lower rail. Both of these effects alleviate the rail problem, however the disadvantage of increasing VSB in the case of a switch is that it also reverse-biases the drain-to-bulk diode, increasing IDB. The options presented above for avoiding subthreshold conduction in NMOS transistors in this process are unattractive. However, if it were possible to fabricate the NMOS inside a well, the switch topology presented in FIG. 1B could be used with Vout biased near VDD/2 to simultaneously minimize subthreshold leakage, avoid the rail problem, and minimize drain-to-bulk leakage. One alternative in an n-well process is to implement the switch using a PMOS transistor. Before examining the leakage of a PMOS version of this switch, observations of an accumulation-mode leakage mechanism are presented below.
Equation 3 is valid only when the NMOS structure is biased in weak inversion, which was true in the above experimental data for VGS>−200 mV. However, for VGS<−400 mV the transistor is biased in a different region of MOS operation known as accumulation-mode. In this regime, the subthreshold mechanisms that couple the source and drain in the MOS channel are negligible. As a result, it is typically concluded the source no longer significantly interacts with the drain in accumulation mode.
The measurements presented in FIG. 4 not only show that this assumption is false, but that the source-drain interaction is still quite strong. In this experiment, the accumulation-mode ID versus VGS characteristic of a minimum-sized NMOS transistor was measured at multiple values of with VSB with VB=0 V and VDB=150 mV. The plot shows that as VSB approaches VDB, the curves asymptote to a VGS-independent drain current of ≈30 aA—much lower than the apparent lower bound seen in FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 characterizes the accumulation-mode ID versus VSB response of the same minimum-sized NMOS transistor at a fixed VGB=−1 V, for multiple values of VDB. The plots show that for −50 mV≦VSB≦50 mV the drain current ID still depends exponentially on VSB, changing an order of magnitude for a 60 mV change in VSB, but is independent of the source-to-bulk voltage for VSB>100 mV. Also, the residual leakage values weakly increase with VDB, most likely due to the drain-to-bulk diode's reverse current increasing with reverse bias. Modeling this response as an ideal diode plus a drain-dependent offset current gives data fits with correlation coefficients above 0.99, suggesting that a significant component of the accumulation-mode leakage current is due to a coupling of the source-to-bulk diode current to the drain terminal. Finally, since the source and drain are symmetric terminals in the MOS transistor, the observed interaction will also be symmetric.
An empirical model of this accumulation-mode conduction mechanism in the NMOS is shown in FIG. 6. The distributed drain-to-bulk and source-to-bulk diodes are modeled as two pairs of lumped diodes. The first diode in each pair, DSB1 and DDB1 are lumped models of the portions of the distributed diodes that only interact with the bulk. The second diode in each pair, DSB2 and DDB2, represent the portions of these distributed diodes that only interact with the opposite MOS terminal. It is postulated that the mechanism linking these two diodes is carrier diffusion under the accumulation layer. This theory is bolstered by the fact that in FIG. 4 the drain current in the upper curves decreases as VGS becomes more negative. The empirical model explains this behavior as a reduction in the cross-sectional areas of DDB2 and DSB2 due to the increasing depth of the accumulation layer with decreasing VGS.
A second interpretation of this empirical model is to view the coupled diodes DDB2 and DSB2 as a single symmetric lateral bipolar transistor acting between the source, bulk, and drain terminals. A detailed device-physics-based characterization of this leakage mechanism could be developed based on either of these equivalent views. However, since one goal is to understand how to minimize MOS leakage, a simple rule-of-thumb for avoiding this leakage mechanism is offered and the effect is not characterized further.
From the symmetry of the empirical leakage model, it is expected that the accumulation-mode source/drain interaction can be minimized by ensuring that VSB=VDB. Under these conditions, the currents flowing in DDB2 and DSB2 will be equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, summing to zero like in traditional subthreshold conduction or symmetric lateral bipolar conduction. This was previously observed in FIG. 4 for VDB=VSB=150 mV, and resulted in a residual leakage due to only DDB1. Additionally, if either (or both) VSB or VDB>100 mV, the model predicts the net leakage from that node will depend on the node voltage only weakly through the diode's reverse-bias current dependence on reverse-bias voltage, as seen in FIG. 5. The implications of the accumulation-mode leakage effect on the switch topology of FIG. 1B are clear. In this switch, VDB is intentionally biased as close to 0 V as possible to minimize the drain-to-bulk diode leakage. Thus, to ensure that the accumulation-mode conduction mechanism characterized above does not dominate diode leakage when the switch is turned off, it is require that VSB=VDB=0V.
Further measurements characterize the leakage of a PMOS version of the switch topology shown in FIG. 1B. The measured ID versus VDB curves of five minimum-sized PMOS transistors are shown in FIG. 7 for −10 mV≦VDB≦10 mV, with VSB=0 V, a bulk-to-substrate voltage of VB-sub=1.65 V, and VG-sub=VDD=3.3 V. These bias voltages eliminate subthreshold conduction, minimize drain-to-bulk diode leakage, and minimize accumulation-mode conduction. The leakage is characterized as a function of VDB because this voltage will eventually depend on a random amplifier offset, much like it did in the leakage tester of FIG. 2. Thus, the sweeps shown in FIG. 7 represent the range of leakages that most likely will be encountered in a storage cell using a minimum-sized PMOS transistor as a switch.
One result seen in FIG. 7 is the nonzero current when VDB=0V. This highlights an additional leakage mechanism unique to transistors fabricated inside wells. In these transistors, the well-to-substrate junction can interact with the drain through minority carrier diffusion, just as the source-to-bulk junction does in accumulation-mode. Equivalently, this leakage can be viewed as the result of a vertical bipolar transistor acting between the drain, well, and substrate terminals. Since the well-to-substrate junction is heavily reverse-biased and the drain-to-well junction is not, a net differential leakage current flows from the drain to the substrate, accounting for the observed offset. This theory is supported by measurements showing this offset leakage approaches zero as VB-Sub approaches 0 V.
FIG. 8 shows a top-level view of the single-sided switched-capacitor storage cell 100. The cell 100 includes a high-accuracy sample-and-hold circuit. The analysis of cell operation that follows ignores switch charge injection and device noise, but these error sources will be considered below. Additionally, for the moment ignore Ccomp and assume that Vreset=0 V.
The sampling phase of circuit operation occurs while the digital signals φ and φ2d (a delayed version of φ that occurs 2d later in time) are both high and/φ2d is low. Under these conditions switches S1 and S2 are closed and switch S3 is open. This ties the amplifier in unity-negative feedback and connects Vin to the left side of the sampling capacitor Csamp. The net voltage applied across Csamp during this phase is VC=Vin−(Vref+Voff), where Voff is defined to be the offset between the negative and positive terminals of the amplifier in this unity-negative feedback configuration. At the instant in time when φ switches from high to low, switch S2 opens and the sampling phase ends. Assuming zero charge injection from S2 into the virtual ground node of the amplifier, the voltage held across Csamp is described in Equation 5 below.

VC, sampled=Vin,sampled−(Vref+Voff).  Eq. (5)

Note that if there is a nonzero parasitic capacitance Cpar at the V_ node, the capacitor divider formed by Csap and Cpar allows movements in Vin to alter VC,sampled even after S2 opens. However, because of the capacitive divider, V_ is also forced to move in proportion to Vin. When switch S3 eventually closes and the hold phase begins the resulting negative feedback loop will force V_ to return to a voltage nearly identical to its sampling phase value. This can happen only if the left terminal of Csamp returns to the voltage that was present at Vin at the instant when S2 opened. This independence from movements at Vin once S2 is opened is a consideration when switch topologies are chosen.
After switch S2 opens and the input voltage has been sampled, the delayed control signals φ2d and /φ2d cause S1 to open and S3 to close. This connects the left terminal of Csamp to the output of the amplifier, Vout, configuring the circuit in the same topology as the current integrator of FIG. 2 and highlighting that it is switch S2 that is low-leakage. For the moment, ignore the transient behavior of the circuit after S3 closes and focus on the final dc voltages that will exist after the system settles in this new configuration. Negative feedback will force the virtual ground node to a hold-phase voltage set forth in Equation 6 below.

V−,hold=Vref+Voff+ΔV  Eq. (6)

where ΔV is due to the amplifier's finite open-loop dc gain Av. The hold-phase output voltage is described in Equation 7.

Vout, hold=VC, sampled+V−,hold=Vin, sampled+ΔV  Eq. (7)

Using Equation 7, ΔV can be expressed in terms of the change in Vout from the sample to the hold phase




  
    
      
        
          
            
              
                Δ
                ⁢
                
                  
                
                ⁢
                V
              
              =
              
                -
                
                  
                    
                      V
                      
                        out
                        ,
                        hold
                      
                    
                    -
                    
                      V
                      
                        out
                        ,
                        samp
                      
                    
                  
                  
                    A
                    v
                  
                
              
            
          
        
        
          
            
              =
              
                -
                
                  
                    
                      (
                      
                        
                          V
                          
                            in
                            ,
                            sampled
                          
                        
                        +
                        
                          Δ
                          ⁢
                          
                            
                          
                          ⁢
                          V
                        
                      
                      )
                    
                    -
                    
                      (
                      
                        
                          V
                          ref
                        
                        +
                        
                          V
                          off
                        
                      
                      )
                    
                  
                  
                    A
                    v
                  
                
              
            
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Eq
        .
        
          
        
        ⁢
        
          (
          8
          )
        
      
    
  




which simplifies to Equation 9 which gives





  
    
      
        
          Δ
          ⁢
          
            
          
          ⁢
          V
        
        =
        
          -
          
            
              
                V
                
                  in
                  ,
                  sampled
                
              
              -
              
                (
                
                  
                    V
                    ref
                  
                  +
                  
                    V
                    off
                  
                
                )
              
            
            
              (
              
                
                  A
                  v
                
                +
                1
              
              )
            
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Eq
        .
        
          
        
        ⁢
        
          (
          9
          )
        
      
    
  




Since the error term ΔV causes Vout,hold to differ from the desired held voltage Vin,sampled, the amplifier's dc gain Av must be large enough to keep ΔV tolerable at the extremes of Vin.
To this end, the amplifier was implemented as a subthreshold fully cascoded wide-output swing OTA, shown in FIG. 9, and designed with an open-loop dc gain Av=104 V/V. Devices in the amplifier were sized with W/L=9 μm/4.5 μm. With VDD=3.3 V and Vref=1.65 V, Equation 9 predicting that the absolute value of the sampling error due to finite gain will be <165 μV for 0 V≦Vin≦VDD.
When MOS switches are turned off they inject channel charge and parasitic capacitive charge into the circuit nodes attached to their drain and source. Since the stored information of the above cell is represented by the sampled charge at the virtual ground node of the amplifier, any charge injection into the virtual ground node when S2 opens will alter the stored analog value. To minimize this charge injection, the standard dummy transistor compensation technique is employed in constructing S2.
The inventive low-leakage, low-charge-injection switch structure used for S2 is shown in FIG. 10A. FIG. 10C shows the switch S2 in the circuit of FIG. 8. Note that a single-delay version φd of the control signal φ is used in the switch control for reasons that will be clear when the transient response is discussed. Referring to FIG. 8, terminal T1 connects to V_ while terminal T2 connects to Vout. Transistor MCOR forms the core of the switch and is the PMOS equivalent of the low-leakage NMOS switch of FIG. 1B. Transistor MCIC implements charge-injection cancellation by nominally extracting the same charge from the virtual ground node as MCOR injects into the node, and is delayed appropriately. The bulks of both of these devices are biased at Vref, as this is the best available estimate of the voltage that will be present at T1 during the hold phase of the cell. This minimizes the deterministic component of the source/drain-to-bulk diode voltages of MCOR and MCIC, but does not counteract the random amplifier input-offset voltage Voff or the input-dependent offset ΔV. Choosing Vref significantly below VDD also ensures that MCOR is biased deep in accumulation-mode when it is off, minimizing its subthreshold conduction. Transistor MHPD disconnects the source of MCOR from Vout during the hold phase so that MHPC can connect this node to Vref, minimizing accumulation-mode source-drain conduction in MCOR. Transistor MHPD's bulk is biased at VDD to ensure that this transistor's drain-to-bulk diode cannot be forward biased by a high level at during the hold phase. The bulk of MHPC can be biased at either VDD or Vref, whichever is more convenient during layout.
It should be noted that past switch designs have also biased MCOR deep in accumulation-mode when it is off to minimize subthreshold conduction, and have minimized MCOR's drain-to bulk diode voltage to minimize diode leakage. It is the novel addition of MHPC and MHPD combined with the switching and biasing scheme employed that minimizes accumulation-mode conduction in MCOR and allows this switch to achieve even lower leakage compared to past designs.
Since movements at Vin do not affect the cell's sampled information once S2 is opened, the charge-injection of switches S1 and S3 do not affect the cell's sampled value. However, the leakage of these switches does introduce an additional amplifier voltage offset defined by the ratio of the leakage current to the amplifier transconductance, Ilk/gm. This offset is less than 1 μV for standard MOS switch leakages (Ilk<10 fA) and amplifier bias currents greater than 500 pA. Thus, the only restriction placed on these two switches is that they both must pass rail-to-rail voltage levels to maximize the input/output voltage range, and therefore they were implemented as minimum-sized transmission gates.
An additional sampling error can be attributed to random circuit noise, which introduces an uncertainty in the voltage applied across Csamp during the sampling phase. When φ transitions from high-to-low, the voltage sampled across Csamp will be the sum of the value given in Equation 5 plus the instantaneous value of this noise voltage. In this circuit the noise was determined to be dominated by the amplifier thermal noise. Since the amplifier is effectively tied in unity negative feedback during all phases of circuit operation, the total thermal noise is similar in form to that of a standard single-pole RC circuit, and is described in Equation 10 below.




  
    
      
        
          
            v
            ~
          
          n
          2
        
        =
        
          N
          ·
          
            (
            
              
                
                  2
                  q
                
                ⁢
                1
              
              
                g
                m
                2
              
            
            )
          
          ·
          
            π
            2
          
          ·
          
            1
            
              2
              ⁢
              π
            
          
          ·
          
            (
            
              
                g
                m
              
              
                C
                tot
              
            
            )
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Eq
        .
        
          
        
        ⁢
        
          (
          10
          )
        
      
    
  




where N is the effective number of devices contributing noise from the amplifier (N=8 in this amplifier), q is the electron charge, gm is kI/Vt is the sub threshold transconductance of the amplifier, and Ctot is the total effective capacitance present at the output of the amplifier. The RMS voltage noise of the circuit can be evaluated by taking the square root from Equation 10 and simplifying to get the relationship in Equation 11.




  
    
      
        
          σ
          v
        
        =
        
          
            v
            RMS
          
          =
          
            
              
                
                  v
                  ~
                
                n
                2
              
            
            =
            
              
                
                  N
                  
                    2
                    ⁢
                    κ
                  
                
                ·
                
                  
                    κ
                    ⁢
                    
                      
                    
                    ⁢
                    T
                  
                  
                    C
                    tot
                  
                
              
            
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Eq
        .
        
          
        
        ⁢
        
          (
          11
          )
        
      
    
  




where VRMS represents the expected standard deviation σv of the noise voltage, and kT=qVt. During the sampling phase Ctot=CSamp+Ccomp while during the hold phase Ctot=CComp alone−Csamp does not affect the hold-phase noise. Capacitor Ccomp serves the added role of increasing the loop's phase margin to 90°.
The capacitor values were chosen based on noise, charge injection, and frequency response constraints to be Csamp=2.5 pF and Ccomp=2 pF. Assuming κ≈0.7, Equation 11 predicts a sampling-phase standard deviation of σv,s=72 μV, and a hold-phase standard deviation of σv,h=108 μV. Since thermal noise is Gaussian, the sampling error will lie within a ±3σv,s window over 99% of the time. The random sampling voltage error window expected in this cell is ±3σv,s.≈±210 μV. Coupled with the finite-gain and charge-injection errors, this still theoretically allows the cell to achieve 12-bit accurate sampling.
The transient response of the storage cell during its transition from the sampling phase to the hold phase requires consideration due to the topology chosen for switch S2. In the case where Vin<Vref, the voltage stored across Csamp after S2 opens will be negative. Ignoring Voff for the moment, the voltage stored on Ccomp at the end of the sampling phase will equal Vref. The problem occurs when switch S3 connects the left terminal of Csamp to the output of the amplifier, and thus to Ccomp. Since (CparCsamp/(Cpar+Csamp))<<Ccomp, the resulting capacitive divider causes Ccomp's voltage to only decrease slightly below Vref at the instant when S3 closes. As a result, the left terminal of Csamp transiently rises from Vin to ≈Vref, and the capacitive divider formed by Csamp and Cpar forces V_ above Vref. The voltage at V_ remains above Vref while the amplifier's output slews to the equilibrium dc output voltage determined previously in Equations 7 and 9. Referring to the diagram of S2 in FIG. 10A, it can be seen that if T1 is pulled above Vref, the source/drain-to-bulk diodes of MCOR and MCIC will forward bias allowing charge to flow out of V_, corrupting the stored analog information.
To address the above, one embodiment includes resetting Ccomp to 0 V after S2 opens, but before S3 closes, which will ensure that V_ is always less than Vref during the initial transient and amplifier slewing phases. This is accomplished using an NMOS transistor connected in parallel with Ccomp, as shown in FIG. 8. The control circuitry pulses Vreset high after φd has gone low but before φ2d goes low, with the pulse lasting ≈200 ns. The charge injected by S2's reverse-biased diodes into V_ during slewing still introduces an additional sampling offset error, but calculations show that it is negligible.
The leakage of the storage cell in FIG. 8 is expected to be significantly larger than the values measured in FIG. 7 as a result of the dummy-device charge cancellation employed in S2. Referring again to FIG. 10A, this technique required MCOR to be constructed from two parallel minimum-sized transistors and MCIC's source and drain to both be connected to the virtual ground node of the amplifier. This makes the source/drain-to-bulk area connected to the virtual ground node a factor of four larger than that of a minimum-sized device. Since diode saturation current Is is proportional to junction area, both the offset and slope of the leakage current of this switch will be approximately four times larger than the values measured in FIG. 7, increasing to approximately 70 aA and 4 aA/mV, respectively. The actual increase in these parameters may not be simple to predict because the mechanisms involved exhibit more intricate dependencies on junction sizing and layout geometry, but they will increase.
The estimated leakage floor of the single-sided cell can be reduced by modifying the original cell of FIG. 8 to employ differential charge-injection and leakage-cancellation techniques. The modifications to the original cell are shown in FIG. 11. First, rather than connecting Vref directly to the positive terminal of the amplifier, this voltage is sampled using M5, a minimum-sized PMOS, onto Csamp,2 which is identical to Csamp. The left terminal of Csamp,2 could be tied to any dc voltage, but Vref is preferred as it is a quiet reference voltage and thus offers a high level of power supply rejection. Switch S2,diff, shown in FIG. 10B, is a modified version of the original S2 topology with transistor MCIC eliminated and transistor MCOR formed from a single minimum-sized PMOS rather than two in parallel. FIG. 10D shows the switch S2,diff in the circuit of FIG. 11. The difference between the charge injections of MCOR and M5 onto Csamp and Csamp,2, respectively, define the net charge injection, which should nominally be zero due to matching. Additionally, the net hold-phase leakage will be set by the difference between the leakage of and M5 and MCOR, two minimum-sized PMOS transistors that are both biased in the ultra-low-leakage configuration. Assuming 80% matching, the offset component of the leakage observed in FIG. 7 should be reduced to less than ±4 aA, while the random component due to the amplifier input-offset voltage should remain at ±10 aA for offsets in the ±10-mV range.
The measured dc input-output response of a representative single-sided storage cell with VDD=3.3V, VREF=1.65V, and an amplifier bias current of 1.5-nA is shown in FIG. 12. The plot shows the difference between the input and stored voltage as a function of the input voltage, as well as a first-order fit to the relevant portion of the data. For Vin below 0.2V and above 3.1V the error rapidly increases, indicating these sampled voltage levels are outside the saturation region of the amplifier's output leg. However, inside these limits the absolute value of the sampling error is less than 600 μV, including 6σ sampling noise. The sampling error when Vin=Vref=1.65V—roughly 200 μV based on the data fit—represents the constant offset error due to charge injection, since at this input level the finite-gain induced error is zero. The fit also shows that at the extremes of Vin the sampling error lies within ±200 μV of the nominal offset of 200 μV, indicating a maximum finite-gain induced error of ΔV=±200 μV. The measured dc sweep parameters of the four storage cells that were fabricated are listed in Table III along with the statistical results. Since the absolute sampling error of all cells is less than 2.9V/212≈700 μV, the cells achieve 12-bit accurate sampling.







TABLE III







MEASURED PERFORMANCE OF FABRICATED SINGLE-SIDED


STORAGE CELLS













Charge-
Finite-
Input-Output





Injection
Gain
Range
Amplifier
Leakage



Error
Error (ΔV)
(@ VDD = 3.3 V)
Offset
Current











Single-Sided












Cell 1
+100 μV
+200 μV
>2.9 V
−4.9 mV
20 aA


Cell 2
+200 μV
+200 μV
>2.9 V
+6.4 mV
72 aA


Cell 3
+200 μV
+200 μV
>2.9 V
+7.0 mV
65 aA


Cell 4
+200 μV
+150 μV
>2.9 V
−3.4 mV
23 aA


Average
+175 μV
+188 μV
—
+1.3 mV
45 aA


Std.
   50 μV
   25 μV
—
  6.3 mV
27 aA


Dev









The leakage responses of the four cells are shown in FIG. 13. The leakage was verified to be virtually independent of the sampled voltage level, as expected, so the sampled voltage level was arbitrarily chosen to be 1V. The measured amplifier offsets and inferred leakage currents of each cell are listed in Table III above. The measurements show that the average leakage of the cell is roughly a factor of three larger than the value seen in FIG. 7, and the change in leakage for a given change in offset voltage is between four and five times larger than that seen in FIG. 7, in agreement with the above.
The measured dc input-output response of a representative differential storage cell with VDD=3.3 V, Vref=1.65 V, and an amplifier bias current of 1.5 nA is shown in FIG. 14, along with a first-order fit. This differential cell exhibits an input output range spanning 0.2 to 3.1 V, a charge-injection offset of 75 μV, and a maximum finite-gain error of ΔV=±200 μV. The measured dc sweep parameters of all four differential cells are summarized in Table IV.







TABLE IV







MEASURED PERFORMANCE OF FABRICATED DIFFERENTIAL


STORAGE CELLS















Input-





Charge
Finite-
Output



Injection
Gain
Range (@
Amplifier
Leakage



Error
Error (ΔV)
VDD = 3.3 V)
Offset
Current











Differential












Cell 1
+75 μV
±200 μV
>2.9 V
 +12 mV
 15 aA


Cell 2
+50 μV
±100 μV
>2.9 V
+5.9 mV
  9 aA


Cell 3
+50 μV
±150 μV
>2.9 V
+6.4 mV
  2 aA


Cell 4
+100 μV 
±125 μV
>2.9 V
+4.2 mV
  9 aA


Average
+69 μV
±144 μV
—
+3.9 mV
8.8 aA


Std. Dev
+24 μV
   43 μV
—
  7.6 mV
5.3 aA









Notice that the input-output range and finite-gain error are similar for the differential and single sided cells, as expected, but the charge injection offset is consistently smaller in the differential cells. Since the absolute sampling error is now less than 400 μV, including 6σ sampling noise, and the input-output range remains greater than 2.9 V, these cells achieve 12-bit accurate sampling.
The leakage responses of the four differential cells are shown in FIG. 15, and a summary of the inferred leakage currents and measured amplifier offsets of each cell are listed in Table IV. It can be seen that the differential cell leakages still vary with amplifier offset, but the standard deviation of this dependence has been significantly reduced by the decreased junction area. The average leakage current of the differential cells is 9 aA per cell, with only one cell exceeding this level of leakage due to its large amplifier offset voltage. This was verified by externally reducing the amplifier offset to +7 mV, which reduced this cell's leakage to under 10 aA.
To compare these results with past cells, the framework introduced above is used. The nominal leakage of the single sided cells should be less than the theoretical leakage given in Table I multiplied by the appropriate scaling factor for drain-to bulk voltage minimization, or (0.68 fA) (0.2)=136 aA. The measured leakage is less than 80 aA in the worst case, 45 aA in the average case, and is clearly under the estimated bound. These cells' worst-case leakage is already comparable to the leakage of known implementations.
The differential cells implement drain-to-bulk voltage minimization as well as differential leakage cancellation, and their leakage should be bounded by (0.68 fA)(0.2)(0.2)=27 aA. The achieved leakage is less than 15 aA in the worst case, 9 aA in the average case, again under the estimated upper bound. The average leakage is more than eight times lower than the leading known implementation.
A die photo of the differential cell is shown in FIG. 16. Additionally, other cell parameters of interest are included in Table V.







TABLE V







ADDITIONAL CELL PARAMETERS










Single Sided
Differential

















Power Consuption
10
ms
10
nW



Sampling Period
10
ms
10
ms











12-bit/8-bit Hold (Average)
39 s/630 s
3/35 min/54 min













Digital Control Area
28,000
μm2
28,000
μm2



Analog Cell Area
26,500
μm2
35,000
μm2










In particular, the differential cells on average lose one bit of voltage accuracy, 700 μV on a 12-bit scale and 11.3 mV on an 8-bit scale, in 3.3 and 54 minutes, respectively. The hold time of this cell at these voltage accuracies is fifteen times longer than known cells, using only 92% as much area. Since junction leakage nominally decreases with the square of the feature size, the design achieves even lower leakage and smaller cell sizes in more modem processes. This is supported by measurements taken from several minimum-sized 0.5-μm versions of the low-leakage switch, which exhibit over an order of magnitude less leakage than the 1.5-μm versions presented here. These results agree with the expected leakage reduction due to feature-size scaling.

With regard to the storage cells' relatively slow 10-ms sampling time, it should be noted that in order to demonstrate that the proposed leakage reduction technique can be used in low-power design, the cells were biased at low current levels, making them slow. However, the usual power versus speed tradeoff can be applied to these cells without affecting their leakage performance. With regard to temperature dependence of cell leakage, measurements revealed that the residual leakage is thermally activated, increasing by roughly a factor of three per 10° C. Since this behavior is similar to that of a standard diode, the data is not shown for brevity. Another issue that should be mentioned is that capacitor soakage—the voltage-dependent polarization of a capacitor's dielectric—fundamentally limits the performance of any sample-and-hold circuit. This effect is typically ignored in analog storage cells because, due to the applications in which they are used, the stored voltages usually remain within a small neighborhood of the full input-output voltage range of the cell. However, for true rail-to-rail sample-and-hold operation, capacitor soakage will limit the sampling accuracy and initial leakage of the cell, and should be considered.
Embodiments of the present invention include using an on-chip current integration technique to characterize the dominant sources of MOS drain leakage, an accumulation-mode leakage mechanism that can dominate junction diode leakage. A novel ultra-low leakage switch topology can be incorporated in a differential storage cell to achieve an average leakage of 10 aA at room temperature, an eight time reduction over past designs. In an exemplary embodiment, the cell loses one bit of voltage accuracy, 700 μV on a 12-bit scale and 11.3 mV on an 8-bit scale, in 3.3 and 54 min, respectively. This represents a fifteen fold increase in hold time at these voltage accuracies over past designs. Since the leakage is independent of amplifier speed, the cell can operate on as little as 10 nW of power.
Having described exemplary embodiments of the invention, it will now become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the techniques of minimizing subthreshold conduction, diode leakage, vertical bipolar conduction, and accumulation-mode diffusion in the inventive switch topologies and storage cells described herein are applicable to other areas, including but not limited to analog filters, switched-capacitor circuits, photoreceptors, imager arrays, and hardware neural networks. It will now become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments incorporating their concepts may also be used. The embodiments contained herein should not be limited to disclosed embodiments but rather should be limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims. All publications and references cited herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

## Claims

1. A differential leakage canceling analog storage cell circuit having a sample phase and a hold phase, comprising:
a signal receiving terminal;
a reference voltage source;
a first switch having a first terminal coupled to the signal receiving terminal and a second terminal;
a second switch having a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first switch and a second terminal;
a first sampling capacitor having a first end coupled to the second terminal of the first switch and a second end;
a second sampling capacitor having a first end coupled to a voltage source and a second end;
a leakage canceling transistor having gate, source, drain and bulk terminals and a residual leakage between the source and bulk terminals and having the drain and bulk terminals connected to the reference voltage source and having the source terminal connected to the second end of the second sampling capacitor;
an amplifier having first and second input terminals and an output terminal, the first input terminal coupled to the second end of the second sampling capacitor and the source terminal of the leakage canceling transistor, the second input terminal coupled to the second end of the first sampling capacitor, and the output terminal being coupled to the second end of the second switch and the second end of the first sampling capacitor via a switch structure;
wherein the switch structure includes:
a core transistor having gate, source, drain and bulk terminals and a residual leakage between the source and bulk terminals and having the bulk terminal connected to the reference voltage source and having the source terminal connected to the second end of the first sampling capacitor and the second input terminal of the amplifier;
a disconnect switch coupled to the drain of the core transistor and to the amplifier output terminal to selectively disconnect the core transistor drain from the amplifier output terminal during the hold phase; and
a connect switch coupled to the drain of the core transistor and to the reference voltage source to connect the drain of the core transistor to the reference voltage source during the hold phase,
wherein the residual leakage of the leakage canceling transistor into the second sampling capacitor substantially cancels the residual leakage of the core transistor into the first sampling capacitor.

2. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein the analog storage cell circuit has less than 10 aA leakage at room temperature.

3. The circuit according to claim 1, further including a compensating capacitor and a reset switching device coupled to an output of the amplifier.

4. A method, comprising:
providing a signal receiving terminal;
providing a reference voltage source;
providing a first switch having a first terminal coupled to the signal receiving terminal and a second terminal;
providing a second switch having a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first switch and a second terminal;
providing a first sampling capacitor having a first end coupled to the second terminal of the first switch and a second end;
providing a second sampling capacitor having a first end coupled to a voltage source and a second end;
providing a leakage canceling transistor having gate, source, drain and bulk terminals and a residual leakage between the source and bulk terminals and having the drain and bulk terminals connected to the reference voltage source and having the source terminal connected to the second end of the second sampling capacitor;
providing an amplifier having first and second input terminals and an output terminal, the first input terminal coupled to the second end of the second sampling capacitor and the source terminal of the leakage canceling transistor, the second input terminal coupled to the second end of the first sampling capacitor, and the output terminal being coupled to the second end of the second switch and the second end of the first sampling capacitor via a switch structure;
wherein the switch structure includes:
a core transistor having gate, source, drain and bulk terminals and a residual leakage between the source and bulk terminals and having the bulk terminal connected to the reference voltage source and having the source terminal connected to the second end of the first sampling capacitor and the second input terminal of the amplifier;
a disconnect switch coupled to the drain of the core transistor and to the amplifier output terminal to selectively disconnect the core transistor drain from the amplifier output terminal during the hold phase; and
a connect switch coupled to the drain of the core transistor and to the reference voltage source to connect the drain of the core transistor to the reference voltage source during the hold phase,
wherein the residual leakage of the leakage canceling transistor into the second sampling capacitor substantially cancels the residual leakage of the core transistor into the first sampling capacitor.