Impact of RF stress on the low-frequency noise in nMOSFETs

Abstract

In this paper, the degradation of low-frequency (LF) noise under different RF stress conditions in nMOSFETs has been reported and compared with the conventional DC stress condition. LF noise increases after RF stress and the increment of noise under RF stress at a large V_gs value is bigger than that caused by DC stress. The change in LF noise intensity under RF stress raised more rapidly at large V_gs values than that at small V_gs values, which are contradictory to LF noise performance after DC stress. The influence of the input power and frequency of stress on LF noise has also been investigated separately. As the stress input power or frequency increases, the increment of noise intensity rises as well. The γ decreases as the growth of the stress input power or frequency, and the values of γ are below 1 after 18 GHz RF stress. The results provide experimental verification that the interface traps generated by RF stress play a major role in the degradation of LF noise.