A physics-based RTN variability model for MOSFETs

Low Frequency Noise (LFN) and Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) are performance limiters in many analog and digital circuits. For small area devices the noise PSD can easily vary by more than 4 orders of magnitude, imposing serious threat in circuit performance and possibly reliability. In this paper we propose a new RTN/LFN variability area scaling model. The model is validated through numerous experimental results for n-channel and p-channel devices from different CMOS nodes. Using this model we demonstrate that the variability found in our measurements can be explained using reasonable physical quantities and we clarify why variability, σ[log(S
Id
)], of RTN/LFN doesn't follow a 1/√area dependency.