On the flicker noise in submicron silicon MOSFETs

An overview is given of recent theoretical concepts and experimental findin gs with respect to the flicker or lif noise in advanced silicon MOSFETs. Fi rst, a summary will be given of the theoretical models which to date are be ing considered for modeling of the flicker noise phenomenon. These will be confronted with experimental evidence, from which the likely validity range of the different models and their possible limitations follow. Next, atten tion will be paid to the impact of technology scaling to submicron dimensio ns on the 1/f noise. Finally, the effect of specific advanced processing st eps, typical for submicron CMOS technology will be highlighted and guidelin es for low-noise processing will be formulated. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.