Investigation of Low-Frequency Noise in Silicon Nanowire MOSFETs in the Subthreshold Region

The low-frequency noise (LFN) in the subthreshold region of both n- and p-type gate-all-around silicon nanowire transistors (SNWTs) is investigated. The measured drain-current noise spectral density shows that the LFN in this regime can be well described by the mobility-fluctuation model due to the volume-inversion conduction behavior, and the Hooge parameter is extracted. The LFN in the SNWTs with channels oriented in lang010rang and lang110rang directions is compared. It shows that the observed mobility enhancement in the lang010rang direction for p-type transistors leads to a corresponding increase of the LFN level in the lang010rang direction compared with that in the lang110rang direction.