Device noise in silicon RF technologies

Abstract

Mobile wireless communication links place stringent demands on the required signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of terminal products. Link performance is strongly dependent on both the sensitivity and dynamic range of the transceiver circuit. Receiver sensitivity, in turn, is determined predominantly by the radio frequency (RF) small-signal and noise performance of the devices used in the front-end RF analog section. Two major design concerns are the noise figure of the low-noise amplifier (LNA), which is related to the RF noise of the devices, as well as the phase noise of the local oscillator (LO) and mixer circuits, which can be caused by up-conversion of low-frequency device noise (flicker, thermal, and shot noise). This paper discusses ongoing experimental research involving characterization and modeling of the noise performance in silicon (Si) RF devices used in wireless applications.