Impact of gate oxide nitridation process on 1/ f noise in 0.18 μm CMOS

The aim of this paper is to study the impact of the nitridation techniques on the 1/ f noise performances of dual gate 0.18 μm CMOS transistors. Nitrogen is often introduced to prevent boron penetration in ultrathin oxides especially when BF 2 is used for the PMOS junction implantation, but as a result the MOS transistor exhibits higher 1/ f noise because of the increased fixed trap density. We show how the nitridation process can be improved in terms of 1/ f noise characteristics, in a fully integrated technology. Projections of the 1/ f noise behaviour for different technologies are also shown, to emphasise how the 1/ f noise becomes an issue when other downscaling properties are considered for analog/RF CMOS applications.