An Overview on Statistical Modeling of Random Telegraph Noise in the Frequency Domain

With the scaling of transistor area and the introduction of high-k materials, the noise corner frequency—i.e., the frequency up to which flicker noise dominates over thermal or shot noise—is increased. This makes low-frequency noise (LFN) the dominant noise mechanism in CMOS technologies for frequencies up to several MHz. Additionally, noise power levels can vary several orders of magnitude from device to device, making noise variability a major concern in advanced MOS technologies. Therefore, to assure proper circuit design, it is necessary to identify the fundamental mechanisms responsible for MOSFET LFN to provide accurate LFN models that account not only for the average noise power, but also for its variability and the dependencies on geometry, bias, and temperature.