Low-frequency noise was characterized in Si0.7Ge0.3 surface channel pMOSFETs with ALD Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3 stacks as gate dielectrics. The influences of surface treatment prior to ALD processing and thickness of the Al2O3 layer at the channel interface were investigated. The noise was of the 1/f type and could be modeled as a sum of a Hooge mobility fluctuation noise component and a number fluctuation noise component. Mobility fluctuation noise dominated the 1/f noise in strong inversion, but the number fluctuation noise component, mainly originating from traps in HfO2, also contributed closer to threshold and in weak inversion. The number fluctuation noise component was negligibly small in a device with a 2 nm thick Al2O3 layer at the SiGe channel interface, which reduced the average 1/f noise by a factor of two and decreased the device-to-device variations. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.