EE 220

Analog Integrated Circuits

Lecture 9: Electronic Noise
Electronic Noise
• Why is noise important
• Sets minimum signal levels we can deal with – often sets lower limit on
power

• Signal-to-noise ratio
• Signal power: Psig ~ (VDD)2
• Noise power: Pnoise ~ kBT/C
• SNR: Psig/Pnoise

• Technology scaling
• VDD goes down – lower signal power
• Increase C to compensate – increases power

EE 220 Lecture 9 2
Types of “Noise”
• Interference
• Not “fundamental” – deterministic
• Signal coupling
• Capacitive, inductive, substrate, etc.
• Supply noise

• Device Noise
• Caused by the discreteness of charge
• “fundamental” – thermal noise
• “manufacturing process related” – flicker noise

EE 220 Lecture 9 3
 Noise in Amplifiers 0.4
Output Voltage Noise

0.2
Vout

Vout(t) [V]
0

−0.2

−0.4
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
• All amplifiers generate noise Time [s]

• Comes from random (thermal) carrier motion and discreteness of charge

• Noise is random
• Has to be treated statistically – can’t predict actual value
• Deal with mean (average), variance, spectrum
EE 220 Lecture 9 4
Thermal Noise of a Resistor
• Origin: Brownian Motion
• Thermally agitated particles
• e.g.: ink in water, electrons in a conductor

• Available noise power: PN = kBTΔf

• Noise power in bandwidth Δf delivered to a matched load
• Example: Δf = 1 Hz è PN = 4 x 10-21 or -174 dBm
• Reference: JB Johnson, “Thermal Agitation of Electricity in Conductors”, Phys.
Rev., pp 97-109, July 1928.

EE 220 Lecture 9 5
Resistor Noise Model

vn2
PN = kBTΔf =
4R

Mean square noise voltage: vn2 = 4kBTRΔf

EE 220 Lecture 9 6
 Thermal Noise
• Present in all dissipative elements
• i.e. resistors

• Independent of DC current flow

• Random fluctuations of v(t) or i(t)

• Mean is zero
• Distribution is Gaussian
• Power spectral density is white
• Up to ~ THz frequencies
• kBT = 4 x 10-21 J (T= 290K = 16.9°C)

• Example:
• R = 1 kΩ è 4 nV/rt-Hz
• 1 MHz bandwidth è σ = 4 μV

EE 220 Lecture 9 7
Noise of Passive Networks
• Capacitors and inductors only shape the spectrum

• Noise calculations
• Instantaneous voltages add
• Power spectral densities add
• RMS voltages do not add

• Example: R1 + R2 in series

• Generalization to arbitrary RLC networks

EE 220 Lecture 9 8
Noise in Diodes
• Shot noise
• Zero mean, Gaussian, white in2 = 2qI D Δf
• Proportional to current
• Independent of temperature

• Example:
• ID = 1 mA è 17.9 pA/rt-Hz
• 1 MHz bandwidth è 17.9 nA

• Shot noise vs. thermal noise

• gdiode = ID / (kBT/q)
• Thermal noise density: 4kBTgdiode = 4qID
• Shot noise half of this current (current flow in 1 direction)

EE 220 Lecture 9 9
 BJT Noise

vb2 = 4kBTrb Δf
Δf
ib2 = 2qI B Δf + K1I Bα
f
ic2 = 2qI C Δf

• Just like diodes: shot noise

• Collector and base noise partially correlated

• Extrinsic resistors contribute noise

• Small signal resistors (e.g. ro) do not
• These are not physical resistors
EE 220 Lecture 9 10
Triode MOSFET Noise
• Channel resistance contributes thermal noise

• Channel conductance when VDS = 0:

W
gds0 = µCox (VGS −VTH )
L
• Device is truly a resistor when VDS = 0, so

in2 = 4kBTgds0 Δf

EE 220 Lecture 9 11
Saturation Noise
• Noise distributed along the channel
2 2 W
i = 4kBT µCox (VGS −VTH ) Δf
d
3 L
• For long channel model, can substitute γgm for gds0
id2 = 4kBTγ gm Δf

• More correct formulation uses inversion charge in the channel

[Tsividis]
• This is what SPICE/BSIM uses

EE 220 Lecture 9 12
Thermal Noise in Short Channel Devices
• Strong inversion è thermal noise
• Drain current: gds0 is what we really care about
2 γ
i = 4kBTγ gds0 Δf = 4kBT gm Δf
d
α
• gm is more convenient for input referred noise
• For low fields (long L), γ = 2/3 relates gm to gds0
• For high fields, use α to capture the increase in noise
• High field noise can be 2-3 times larger than low field

• MOS actually has intrinsic gate induced noise (ignored in EE 220)

• Gate leakage è shot noise

EE 220 Lecture 9 13
Weak Inversion Noise
• Weak inversion: BJT è shot noise
• Result should be ~ 2qIDS

• Get the same result from the inversion charge expression:

Qi0 + QiL L2 '

" −qVDS
k BT
%
Qi = WL = I DS $1+ e '
2 k T # &
2µ B
q
2 '
" −qVDS
k BT
%
id = 2qI DS $1+ e ' Δf
# &
EE 220 Lecture 9 14
 FET Noise Model

• Model neglects intrinsic gate noise

• BSIM3 does not directly include α
EE 220 Lecture 9 15
1/f Noise
• Flicker noise K f I D Δf
2
• Kf,NMOS = 2.0 x 10-29AF i
1/ f = 2
• Kf,PMOS = 3.5 x 10-30 AF L Cox f
• Strongly process dependent

• Example: ID = 10 μA, L = 1 μm
• Cox = 5.3 fF / μm2, fhi = 1 MHz
• flo = 1 Hz è σ = 722 pA
• flo = 1/year è σ = 1083 pA

2 fhi K f I D df K f I D fhi
i
1/ f ,total = ∫ flo 2
= 2
L Cox f L Cox flo
ln

EE 220 Lecture 9 16
1/f Noise Corner Frequency
• Definition (MOS) K f ID 1
fco =
K f I D Δf L2Cox 4kBTγ gm
2
= 4kBTγ gm Δf Kf 1 ID
L Cox fco =
4kBTγ Cox L2 gm
Kf V*
=
8kBTγ Cox L2
Example:
• V* = 200 mV, γ = 1
NMOS PMOS

L = 0.35 μm 192 kHz 34 kHz

L = 1.00 μm 24 kHz 4 kHz

EE 220 Lecture 9 17
SPICE Noise Analysis
NMOSFET Drain Current Noise
−7
VDD = 1.2 10
100/1
50/2

Noise Density [A/sqrt(Hz)]

−8
10 1000/10
id2
−9
10

−10
10
VGS = 1.2
−11
10
0 2 4 6 8 10
10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency [Hz]
EE 220 Lecture 9 18
Noise Calculations with Actives
• Method:
• Create the small signal model
• All inputs = 0 (linear superposition)
• Pick output vo or io
• For each noise source vx, ix:
• Calculate Hx(s) = vo(s) / vx(s)
• Total noise at output is:

2
v 2
on,T ( f ) = ∑ H x ( s) vx2 ( f ) = Sn ( f )
x s= j 2 π f

Tedious but simple…

EE 220 Lecture 9 19