On the scaling limits of low-frequency noise in SiGeHBTs

Johansen JA; Jin ZR; Cressler JD; Cui Y; Niu GF; Liang QQ; Rieh JS; Freeman G; Ahlgren D; Joseph A

Solid-State Electronics, Vol.48, No.10-11, 1897-1900, 2004

DOI10.1016/j.sse.2004.05.032 Export Citation

On the scaling limits of low-frequency noise in SiGeHBTs

Johansen JA, Jin ZR, Cressler JD, Cui Y, Niu GF, Liang QQ, Rieh JS, Freeman G, Ahlgren D, Joseph A

The low-frequency noise in high-speed transistors generally increases (degrades) as device technologies down-scale for higher performance. Interestingly, the latest generation of deep-submicron SiGe HBTs breaks this trend, and we find record-low noise corner frequencies of 220 Hz in SiGe HBTs with a peak f(T) of 210 GHz. An explanation for this behavior based on a reduction of the number of dominant noisy traps is offered, and microscopic 2-D simulations of noise are used to support this claim and explore the origins and scaling limits of low-frequency noise in advanced SiGe HBTs. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.