This article describes an optimized high performance 0.25 mu m retrograde well surface-channel pMOSFET with excellent electrical characteristics. The short-channel effects due to the drain-induced barrier lowering effects is suppressed down to 40 mV/V through prudent design of the channel and well doping profiles. A high current drive (a saturation transconductance of 190 mS/mm) is achieved without compromising the sub-threshold behavior of the device. The device off-current is measured to be lower than 1 pA/mu m, which is well below the requirement for ultra low-power applications. A critical comparison between the simulation and experimental results has shown that the differences in the device characteristics are kept below 7%.