TCAD-based investigation of 1/f noise in advanced 22 nm FDSOI MOSFETs

Abstract

In this work, the mechanistic insights behind low-frequency noise (LFN) of the advanced ultrathin body and buried oxide fully depleted silicon-on-insulator based metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) are unveiled. The gate voltage-induced noise power spectral density (SVG) is inversely proportional to frequency f (i.e., SVG∝1/fγ, γ∼ 1 is the frequency exponent) for nMOSFET and pMOSFET. Detailed numerical simulations are performed and well calibrated to reported SVG vs f characteristics. Simulation results are consistent with the reported experimental observations. We demonstrate that LFN is caused by the charge carrier number fluctuation mechanism, which is originated by trapping and de-trapping of channel charge carriers via. bulk traps (from oxygen vacancies) in the hafnium dioxide (HfO2) layer, but not through traps at the silicon dioxide (SiO2)/channel interface. This work therefore explains the similar magnitude of SVG in both nMOSFET and pMOSFET observed experimentally and further suggests that oxygen vacancies inside gate oxides are critical to suppress the low-frequency noise in emerging high-k based MOSFETs.