Low frequency noise characterization of 0.18 μm Si CMOS transistors

The low frequency (LF) noise and random telegraph signal (RTS) fluctuations in 0.189 μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices are investigated. We find that the 1/f noise stems from fluctuations in the carrier number of both N and P channel MOS devices. The slow oxide trap concentration deduced from the noise data is 10 17 /ev cm 3 in agreement with previous 0.35 to 0.25 μim technologies and state-of-the-art gate oxides. The study of some particular RTSs is performed and provides the gate voltage dependence of the capture/emission times as well as of the drain current RTS amplitude. Drain current RTS amplitudes as large as 5 to 10%, have been observed, being somewhat larger than for 0.35 to 0.25 μm CMOS technologies. In addition, the dispersion of the noise level measured at a fixed biasing current and frequency is investigated as a function of the device gate area, showing a considerable large sample-to-sample variation for the smallest devices. Finally, the residual noise backgrounding the RTS noise is studied as a function of gale voltage for some RTSs and is found to be a white noise presumably associated to RTSs with higher cut-off frequencies.