Compact modeling of noise for RF CMOS circuit simulation

We study the the thermal noise of short-channel NMOS transistors in a commercially available 0.13 micron CMOS technology. The experimental results are modeled with a non-quasi-static RF model, based on the principle of channel segmentation. The model is capable of predicting both drain and gate current noise accurately, without fitting any parmeters to the measured noise data. An essential ingredient of the model is the gate resistance, which is shown to dominate the gate current noise. In our optimized device layouts, this gate resistance is mainly determined by the silicide-to-polysilicon contact resistance.