Flicker Noise Behavior in Advanced Bulk FinFETs at Cryogenic Temperatures

Abstract

This work investigates the flicker ( ${1}/{f}$ ) noise in bulk 12-nm regular threshold voltage (RVT) and super-low threshold voltage (SLVT) n- and p-FinFETs from 300 K down to the cryogenic temperatures range (up to 10 K). The dominant source of noise is carrier number fluctuation for the entire temperature range for both n- and p-FinFETs. The normalized noise is demonstrated to be independent of temperature at several gate overdrive voltages. A detailed comparison of RVT and SLVT devices is presented based on their flicker noise performance, which shows a weak-to-no significant increase in normalized noise in RVT and SLVT FinFETs at 10 and 300 K. The frequency exponent ( $\beta $ ) has been examined, showing a uniform trap distribution and weak temperature dependence. The trapping time constant ( $\tau _{\text {T}}$ ) is analyzed and found to be temperature-independent, possibly due to the temperature-dependent behavior of the tunneling time constant ( $\tau _{\text {o}}$ ), leading to the minimal temperature dependence of $\beta $ . Moreover, active volume trap density ( ${N}_{\text {T}}$ ) causing flicker noise is studied with temperature using the carrier number fluctuation model, which is illustrated to be nearly constant by combining the impact of tunneling parameter ( $\gamma $ ) and thermal energy with temperature.