THE DECREASE OF RANDOM TELEGRAPH SIGNAL NOISE IN METAL-OXIDE-SEMICONDUCTOR FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS WHEN CYCLED FROM INVERSION TO ACCUMULATION

The low-frequency (LF) noise behavior of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is studied when cycled between inversion and accumulation. On large-area devices the decrease of the LF noise is systematically found, and supports the observations by Bloom and Nemirovsky [Appl. Phys. Lett. 58, 1664 (1991)]. The random telegraph signal (RTS) noise observed in small (submicrometer) devices disappears when the transistor is cycled into accumulation. The drop in LF noise observed may thus be explained by the fact that most or all of the RTSs, which are caused by carrier trapping into slow oxide states, no longer contribute to the noise of the system. The method indicates a possibility to separate the contributions of different sources of 1/f noise in MOSFETs.