Instrumentation Design for Gate and Drain Low Frequency Noise Measurements (original) (raw)
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Fluctuation and Noise Letters, 2010
A two-channel measurement system suited for the on-wafer characterization of the gate and drain low frequency noise in MOSFETs is presented. Guidelines for designing the preamplifier and the bias stage at the drain and gate terminals are discussed. Results show that, the natural choice of employing transimpedance amplifiers as first preamplifier stage is useful only at the gate side, while it is preferable the use of voltage preamplifiers at the drain side to avoid voltage saturation. A simple prototype which implements the proposed design approach is reported. The system capability is tested through the measurement of the gate noise, the drain noise and the cross-correlation between the two channels in nMOSFETs with ultrathin oxide thickness.
An ultra-low-noise Source-Measuring Unit for semiconductor device noise characterization
2010
This work presents an automated measurement system designed and realized in order to perform low-frequency noise measurements on MOSFET devices with the easy of use and programmability of a Source-Measuring Unit (SMU). The designed instrument is made up mainly by two parts, an analog part that bias the Device Under Test and amplifies its signals, and a digital part that allows to reconfigure, according to the measurement needs, the analog part in a remote driven way. Thus, it was possible to integrate the designed system in a wafer-level measurement system, provided with a dedicated software, in order to perform, in a completely automated way, various set of noise measurements that could require even large amounts of time. Moreover for completeness of the measurement system, in order to allow the user to check out the DUT's integrity and measure its I/V curves (as required before performing any noise measurement) the designed system allows even to perform a static characterization using a dedicated software that has been integrated in the noise measurement Virtual Instrument. With this solution, the use of a parameter analyzer and a switch matrix can be avoided, thus positioning the instrument on the prober shelf, very close to the device, solving a great amount of external interference problems.
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A new method for measuring the noise parameters of MESFET's and HEMT's is presented. This new method is based on the fact that only three independent noise parameters are sufficient to fully describe the device noise performance.
A New Method for Measurement of Low-Frequency Noise of MOSFET
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2013
In this paper, we present a new method for measuring the low-frequency noise of MOSFET transistors. A closedloop structure is used in order to bias the MOSFET under test. This method eliminates the need for I-V characteristics of the MOSFET device, transconductance measurement, current source, and current amplifier which are required in a conventional gate-referred low-frequency noise measurement. The proposed method simplifies the low-frequency noise measurement and reduces the cost of the measurement test setup significantly. The proposed method directly measures the gate-referred noise of MOSFET in contrast to the conventional method which measures drain current noise of MOSFET and divides it by MOSFET transconductance. Therefore, the need for accurate measurement of I-V characteristics of the MOSFET is eliminated, leading to the better accuracy of the measured noise. Circuit implementation of the test setup is presented in this paper. Results of this measurement method are compared to those of the conventional measurement method. It has been shown that the results using two methods are comparable.
Micro-prober for wafer-level low-noise measurements in MOS devices
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2003
Low-frequency noise measurements represent an interesting investigation technique for the characterization of the quality and reliability of microelectronic materials and devices. Performing meaningful noise measurements at low and very low (f 1 Hz) frequencies, however, may be quite challenging, particularly because of the many sources of interferences that superimpose to the noise signal. For this reason packaged samples are preferred because they allow accurate shielding from the external environment, and because keeping the sample in close proximity to the low-noise biasing system and amplifier reduces microphonic and electromagnetic disturbances. Notwithstanding this, the possibility of performing low-frequency noise measurements at wafer level would be quite interesting, both because of the ease of obtaining wafer-level samples from industries with respect to packaged samples, and because this would avoid possible packaging-process induced device degradation. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that it is, in fact, possible to design and build a dedicated probe system for performing high-sensitivity, low-frequency noise measurements on metal-oxide-semiconductor devices at wafer level.
Automatic measurement system for the DC and low-f noise characterization of FETs at wafer level
2015 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) Proceedings, 2015
In this work we propose a measurement setup topology suitable for the automatic DC and low frequency noise (LFN) characterization of field effect transistors at wafer level. The system is composed of source and measure units (SMUs), by a custom-built low noise amplifier (LNA), and by a PC based spectrum analyzer. No bias filters and switch matrices are used, allowing fast switching between DC and LFN measurements together with low leakage. The programmable LNA can reach background noise levels in the order of fA/Hz 1/2 , while DC performances are limited by the SMUs. The main feature of the proposed system is the high degree of operational flexibility due to the complete PC-based software control. LFN characterization, down to bias DC currents of 1pA, in organic thin film transistors is reported to demonstrate system operation and performances.
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A new procedure for the extraction of noise parameters of on-wafer devices is presented and validated experimentally for the first time. The procedure is based on the noise figure measurement of similar devices of different size and biased at constant drain current density J ds and constant drain voltage V ds. Key to its implementation is a scalable noise model. The model in use is the Pospieszalski noise model, based on the equivalent noise temperatures Tgs and T ds of the gate-source and the drain-source resistance, respectively. The new procedure also outlines a path towards the experimental validation of all the noise temperatures associated with the device's lossy elements.
Effect of forward and reverse substrate biasing on low-frequency noise in silicon PMOSFETs
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 2002
The forward body biasing improves the low-frequency noise performance of p-channel metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistors by about 8 dB/V. Therefore, for analog design, forward body biasing may be preferred if noise is a concern. This is in agreement with the improvement of other MOSFET parameters such as the decrease of the threshold voltage ( ) or the increase of unity current-gain frequency ( ) on forward substrate-(or body)-source biasing ( ). Also, forward is very attractive for low voltage supply ( 0 6 V) and low-power, low-noise circuits. A detailed analysis of the dependence of the noise level on and on the gate-source ( ) biasing showed that the dependence on seems to be smaller in weak inversion, and it increases in strong inversion. The dependence on has a turning point at 0 8 V, independent of body bias, which it seems is due to the activation of oxide traps, as the noise waveform showed a random telegraph signal (RTS) component at