MOSFET RF Characterization Using Bulk and SOI CMOS Technologies: Dissertation

MOSFET radio-frequency characterization and modeling is studied, both with SOI CMOS and bulk CMOS technologies. The network analyzer measurement uncertainties are studied, as is their effect on the small signal parameter extraction of MOS devices. These results can be used as guidelines for designing MOS RF characterization layouts with as small an AC extraction error as possible. The results can also be used in RF model extraction as criteria for required optimization accuracy. Modifications to the digital CMOS model equivalent circuit are studied to achieve better RF behavior for the MOS model. The benefit of absorbing the drain and source parasitic series resistances into the current description is evaluated. It seems that correct high-frequency behavior is not possible to describe using this technique. The series resistances need to be defined extrinsically. Different bulk network alternatives were evaluated using scalable device models up to 10 GHz. Accurate output impedance behavior of the model requires a bulk resistance network. It seems that good accuracy improvement is achieved with just a single bulk resistor. Additional improvement is achieved by increasing the number of resistors to three. At this used frequency range no further accuracy improvement was achieved by increasing the resistor amount over three. Two modeling approaches describing the distributed gate behavior are also studied with different MOS transistor layouts. Both approaches improve the RF characteristics to some extent but with limited device geometry. Both distributed gate models describe well the high frequency device behavior of devices not commonly used at radio frequencies.