Noise properties in SiGe BiCMOS devices

This paper deals with the investigation of the noise properties of a commercially available SiGe BiCMOS technology. We present some results related with the high frequency noise behavior of these devices and we defined some geometrical rules allowing the design of low noise amplifier. Concerning their low frequency noise performances, the devices exhibit 1/f noise source with an excess corner noise frequency in the 1 kHz range which is close to the state of the art for a monolithic technology. We further developed a scaleable non linear low frequency noise model implementable in a commercial microwave software. Finally, additional residual phase noise measurements confirmed the impressive capabilities of SiGe HBT technology for low noise RF applications.