LOW-FREQUENCY NOISE CHARACTERIZATION OF GAMMA-IRRADIATED SILICON-ON-INSULATOR MOSFETS

This paper describes the low-frequency (LF) noise behaviour of silicon -on-insulator (SOI) n- and p-MOSFETs, processed in a 1 mu m SOI CMOS t echnology on SIMOX substrates, which have been subjected to gamma-irra diation to a total dose of 100 krad (Si). As will be shown, the post-i rradiation input-referred noise spectral density is a sensitive functi on of the technological details and in particular of the edge-isolatio n scheme used. In general, the irradiation response of the noise corre lates with the degradation of the static current-voltage (I-V) charact eristics both in linear operation and in saturation. For instance, the empirical relationship which exists between the transconductance and the LF noise spectral density before irradiation is maintained afterwa rds. As is shown, the LF noise has a strong potential as a predictive tool for the irradiation response of SOI MOSFETs. Finally, the impact of irradiation on the kink related excess LF noise overshoot in partia lly depleted SOI n-MOSFETs is demonstrated and discussed.