1/f Noise Under Drift And Thermal Agitation In Semiconductor Materials

TL;DR

This paper investigates the origins of 1/f noise in semiconductors, proposing that intermittent generation-recombination processes, rather than temperature fluctuations or oxide traps, are the primary cause of thermal and drift-related 1/f noise.

Contribution

It introduces a new interpretation that traps generating g-r pulses intermittently explain 1/f noise without needing correlated temperature fluctuations.

Findings

Intermittent g-r processes generate 1/f noise.

Thermal 1/f noise can be explained without temperature fluctuations.

Oxide traps with large time constant distributions are unnecessary.

Abstract

Voss and Clarke observed 1/f noise in the square of Johnson noise across samples in thermal equilibrium without applying a current. We refer to this phenomenon as thermal 1/f noise. Voss and Clarke suggested spatially correlated temperature fluctuations as an origin of thermal 1/f noise; they also showed that thermal 1/f noise closely matches the 1/f spectrum obtained by passing a current through the sample. An intermittent generation-recombination (g-r) process has recently been introduced to interpret 1/f noise in semiconductors. The square of this intermittent g-r process generates a 1/f noise component which correlates with Voss and Clarke's empirical findings. Traps which intermittently rather than continuously generate g-r pulses are suggested as the origin of 1/f noise under drift and thermal agitation. We see no need to introduce correlated temperature fluctuations or oxide traps with a large distribution of time constants to explain 1/f noise.