Radiation-induced 1/f noise degradation of PNP bipolar junction transistors at different dose rates

It is found that ionizing-radiation can lead to the base current and the 1/f noise degradations in PNP bipolar junction transistors. In this paper, it is suggested that the surface of the space charge region of the emitter-base junction is the main source of the base surface 1/f noise. A model is developed which identifies the parameters and describes their interactive contributions to the recombination current at the surface of the space charge region. Based on the theory of carrier number fluctuation and the model of surface recombination current, a 1/f noise model is developed. This model suggests that 1/f noise degradations are the result of the accumulation of oxide-trapped charges and interface states. Combining models of ELDRS, this model can explain the reason why the 1/f noise degradation is more severe at a low dose rate than at a high dose rate. The radiations were performed in a Co60 source up to a total dose of 700 Gy（Si）. The low dose rate was 0.001 Gy（Si）/s and the high dose rate was 0.1 Gy（Si）/s. The model accords well with the experimental results.

A unified drain current 1/f noise model for GaN-based high electron mobility transistors

In this work, we present a theoretical and experimental study on the drain current 1/f noise in the AIGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor （HEMT）. Based on both mobility fluctuation and carrier number fluctuation in a two- dimensional electron gas （2DEG） channel of AlGaN/GaN HEMT, a unified drain current 1/f noise model containing a piezoelectric polarization effect and hot carrier effect is built. The drain current 1/f noise induced by the piezoelectric polarization effect is distinguished from that induced by the hot carrier effect through experiments and simulations. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Experiments show that after hot carrier injection, the drain current 1/f noise increases four orders of magnitude and the electrical parameter degradation Agm/gm reaches 54.9%. The drain current 1/f noise degradation induced by the piezoelectric effect reaches one order of magnitude; the electrical parameter degradation Agm/gm is 11.8%. This indicates that drain current 1/f noise of the GaN-based HEMT device is sensitive to the hot carrier effect and piezoelectric effect. This study provides a useful reliability characterization tool for the A1GaN/GaN HEMTs.

PBTI stress-induced 1/f noise in n-channel FinFET

The influence of positive bias temperature instability(PBTI)on 1/f noise performance is systematically investigated on n-channel fin field-effect transistor(FinFET).The FinFET with long and short channel(L=240 nm,16 nm respectively)is characterized under PBTI stress from 0 s to 104 s.The 1/f noise features are analyzed by using the unified physical model taking into account the contributions from the carrier number and channel mobility fluctuations.The I d-V g,I d-V d,I g-V g tests are conducted to support and verify the physical analysis in the PBTI process.It is found that the influence of the channel mobility fluctuations may not be neglected.Due to the mobility degradation in a short-channel device,the noise level of the short channel device also degrades.Trapping and trap generation regimes of PBTI occur in high-k layer and are identified based on the results obtained for the gate leakage current and 1/f noise.

The 1/f noise in multiwalled carbon nanotubes

The 1/f noise in multiwalled carbon nanotubes bundles has been investigated between the frequency range of 0.1 to 30 Hz. At room temperature the noise spectrum is standard 1/f, and its level is proportional to the square of the bias voltage. With decreasing temperature the noise level also decreases. At 4.2 K the noise level follows a non-monotonic dependence against the bias voltage, showing a peak at a certain bias voltage, meanwhile its frequency dependence also deviates from the 1/f trend. This anomalous behaviour is discussed within the picture of environmental quantum fluctuation of charge transport in the samples.

The total dose effects on the 1/f noise of deep submicron CMOS transistors

Using 0.18 μm CMOS transistors, the total dose effects on the 1/f noise of deep-submicron CMOS transistors are studied for the first time in China's Mainland. From the experimental results and the theoretic analysis, we realize that total dose radiation causes a lot of trapped positive charges in STI （shallow trench isolation） SiO2 layers, which induces a current leakage passage, increasing the 1/f noise power of CMOS transistors. In addition, we design some radiation-hardness structures on the CMOS transistors and the experimental results show that, until the total dose achieves 750 krad, the 1/f noise power of the radiation-hardness CMOS transistors remains unchanged, which proves our conclusion.

A gate current 1/f noise model for GaN/AlGaN HEMTs

This work presents a theoretical and experimental study on the gate current 1/f noise in Al GaN/GaN HEMTs. Based on the carrier number fluctuation in the two-dimensional electron gas channel of Al GaN/GaN HEMTs, a gate current 1/f noise model containing a trap-assisted tunneling current and a space charge limited current is built. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experiment. Experiments show that, if Vg〈Vx（critical gate voltage of dielectric relaxation）, gate current 1/f noise comes from the superimposition of trapassisted tunneling RTS（random telegraph noise）, while Vg 〉Vx, gate current 1/f noise comes from not only the trap-assisted tunneling RTS, but also the space charge limited current RTS. This indicates that the gate current 1/f noise of the GaN-based HEMTs device is sensitive to the interaction of defects and the piezoelectric relaxation. It provides a useful characterization tool for deeper information about the defects and their evolution in Al GaN/GaN HEMTs.

Radiation-induced 1/f noise degradation of bipolar linear voltage regulator

Radiation-induced 1/f noise degradation in the LM117 bipolar linear voltage regulator is studied. Based on the radiation-induced degradation mechanism of the output voltage, it is suggested that the band-gap reference subcircuit is the critical component which leads to the 1/f noise degradation of the LM117. The radiation makes the base surface current of the bipolar junction transistors of the band-gap reference subcircuit increase, which leads to an increase in the output 1/f noise of the LM117. Compared to the output voltage, the 1/f noise parameter is more sensitive, it may be used to evaluate the radiation resistance capability of LM117.

Low frequency noise in asymmetric double barrier magnetic tunnel junctions with a top thin MgO layer

Low frequency noise has been investigated at room temperature for asymmetric double barrier magnetic tunnel junctions（DBMTJs）, where the coupling between the top and middle CoFeB layers is antiferromagnetic with a 0.8-nm thin top Mg O barrier of the CoFeB/MgO/CoFe/CoFeB/MgO/CoFe B DBMTJ. At enough large bias, 1/f noise dominates the voltage noise power spectra in the low frequency region, and is conventionally characterized by the Hooge parameter αmag.With increasing external field, the top and bottom ferromagnetic layers are aligned by the field, and then the middle free layer rotates from antiparallel state（antiferromagnetic coupling between top and middle ferromagnetic layers） to parallel state. In this rotation process αmag and magnetoresistance-sensitivity-product show a linear dependence, consistent with the fluctuation dissipation relation. With the magnetic field applied at different angles（θ） to the easy axis of the free layer,the linear dependence persists while the intercept of the linear fit satisfies a cos（θ） dependence, similar to that for the magnetoresistance, suggesting intrinsic relation between magnetic losses and magnetoresistance.

An integrated front-end vertical hall magnetic sensor fabricated in 0.18μm low-voltage CMOS technology

An integrated front-end vertical CMOS Hall magnetic sensor is proposed for the in-plane magnetic field measure-ment.To improve the magnetic sensitivity and to obtain low offset,a fully symmetric vertical Hall device(FSVHD)has been op-timized with a minimum size design.A new four-phase spinning current modulation associated with a correlated double sampling(CDS)demodulation technique has been further applied to compensate for the offset and also to provide a linear Hall output voltage.The vertical Hall sensor chip has been manufactured in a 0.18μm low-voltage CMOS technology and it occu-pies an area of 1.54 mm2.The experimental results show in the magnetic field range from-200 to 200 mT,the entire vertical Hall sensor performs with the linearity of 99.9%and the system magnetic sensitivity of 1.22 V/T and the residual offset of 60μT.Meanwhile,it consumes 4.5 mW at a 3.3 V supply voltage.The proposed vertical Hall sensor is very suitable for the low-cost sys-tem-on-chip(SOC)implementation of 2D or 3D magnetic microsystems.

A Chopper Negative-R Delta-Sigma ADC for Audio MEMS Sensors

This paper presents a proposed low-noise and high-sensitivity Internet of Thing(IoT)system based on an M&NEMS microphone.The IoT device consists of an M&NEMS resistive accelerometer associated with an electronic readout circuit,which is a silicon nanowire and a Continuous-Time(CT)△∑ADC.The first integrator of the△∑ADC is based on a positive feedback DC-gain enhancement two-stage amplifier due to its high linearity and low-noise operations.To mitigate both the offset and 1/f noise,a suggested delay-time chopper negative-R stabilization technique is applied around the first integrator.A 65-nm CMOS process implements the CT△∑ADC.The supply voltage of the CMOS circuit is 1.2-V while 0.96-mW is the power consumption and 0.1-mm^(2) is the silicon area.The M&NEMS microphone and△∑ADC complete circuit are fabricated and measured.Over a working frequency bandwidth of 20-kHz,the measurement results of the proposed IoT system reach a signal to noise ratio(SNR)of 102.8-dB.Moreover,it has a measured dynamic range(DR)of 108-dB and a measured signal to noise and distortion ratio(SNDR)of 101.3-dB.

Bio-Electromagnetics without Fields: The Effect of the Vector Potential

Numerous considerations deal with specialties of bioelectromagnetic effects, including the force-free and field-free interactions. The fact that bioelectromagnetic phenomena consist of effects without mechanical forces and even without measurable fields looks impossible in the simple considerations. However, the stochastic fluctuations cause surprising results, with scientifically proven bioelectromagnetism in field-free conditions. In the first steps, we show the scalar and vector potentials’ specialties instead of electric and magnetic fields defined by the well-known Maxwellian equations. The vanishing of the fields is connected to the potentials’ stochastic fluctuations, the noises control the “zero-ground”. The result shows a possibility of a wave that has no attenuation during its transmission through the material. In this meaning, the result is similar to the consequences of the scalar-wave (SW) considerations. The structural changes follow a particular noise spectrum (called pink-noise or 1/f noise), which keeps the entropy constant in a broad range of scaling magnification.

Stimulation and Control of Homeostasis

Healthy homeostasis is a principal driving force of the dynamic equilibrium of living organisms. The dynamical basis of homeostasis is the complex and interconnected feedback mechanisms, which are fundamentally governed by the nervous system, mainly the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic controlling actions. The balancing regulation is well presented in the heart’s sinus node and can be measured by the time-domain heart-rate variation (HRV) of its frequency domain to analyze the constitutional frequencies of the variation. This last is a fluctuation that shows 1/f time fractal arrangement (f is the composing frequency). The time-fractal arrangement could depend on the structural fractal of the His-Purkinje system of the heart and personally modify the HRV. The cancers gradually destroy the homeostatic harmony, starting locally and finishing systemically. The controlling activity of vagus-nerve changes the HRV or the power density spectrum of the signal fluctuations in malignant development, presenting an appropriate control of the cancerous processes. The modified spectrum by a non-invasive radiofrequency treatment could arrest the tumor growth. An appropriate modulation could support the homeostatic control and force reconstructing of the broken complexity.

High performance QVCO design with series coupling in CMOS technology

A high performance quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator （QVCO） is presented. It has been fabricated in SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS technology with top thick metal. The proposed QVCO employed cascade serial coupling for in phase and quadrature phase signal generation. Source degeneration capacitance is added to the NMOS differential pair to suppress their flicker noise from up-conversion to close in phase noise. A dedicated low noise and high power supply rejection low drop out regulator is used to supply this QVCO. The measured phase noise of the proposed QVCO achieves phase noise of-123.3 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 1 MHz from the carrier of 4.78 GHz, while the QVCO core circuit and LDO draw 6 mA from a 1.8 V supply. The QVCO can operate from 4.09 to 4.87 GHz （17.5%）. Measured tuning gain of the QVCO （Kvco） spans from 44.5 to 66.7 MHz/V. The chip area excluding the pads and ESD protection circuit is 0.41 mm2.

Criticality, adaptability and early-warning signals in time series in a discrete quasispecies model

Complex systems from different fields of knowledge often do not allow a mathematical description or modeling, because of their intricate structure composed of numerous interacting components. As an alternative approach, it is possible to study the way in which observables associated with the system fluctuate in time. These time series may provide valuable information about the underlying dynamics. It has been suggested that complex dynamic systems, ranging from ecosystems to financial markets and the climate, produce generic early-warning signals at the ＂tipping points,＂ where they announce a sudden shift toward a different dynamical regime, such as a population extinction, a systemic market crash, or abrupt shifts in the weather. On the other hand, the framework of Self- Organized Criticality （SOC）, suggests that some complex systems, such as life itself, may spontaneously converge toward a critical point. As a particular example, the quasispecies model suggests that RNA viruses self-organize their mutation rate near the error-catastrophe threshold, where robustness and evolvability are balanced in such a way that survival is optimized. In this paper, we study the time series associated to a classical discrete quasispecies model for different mutation rates, and identify early-warning signals for critical mutation rates near the error-catastrophe threshold, such as irregularities in the kurtosis and a significant increase in the autocorrelation range, reminiscent of 1/f noise. In the present context, we find that the early-warning signals, rather than broadcasting the collapse of the system, are the fingerprint of survival optimization.