Flicker Noise Behavior in Advanced Bulk FinFETs at Cryogenic Temperatures

This work investigates the flicker (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${1}/{f}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) 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 (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula>) has been examined, showing a uniform trap distribution and weak temperature dependence. The trapping time constant (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\tau _{\text {T}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) is analyzed and found to be temperature-independent, possibly due to the temperature-dependent behavior of the tunneling time constant (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\tau _{\text {o}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), leading to the minimal temperature dependence of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Moreover, active volume trap density (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${N}_{\text {T}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) 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 (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\gamma $ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and thermal energy with temperature.