RFModeling

RFModeling Introduction
Advances in CMOS fabrications have resulted in
deep submicron transistors with higher transit
frequenciesandlowernoisefigures
MOSFETsisattractiveforhighfrequency(HF)circuit
design in view of a system onachip realization,
where digital, mixedsignal baseband and HF
transceiver blocks would be integrated on a single
chip
other advantages offered by silicon CMOS
technologies
lowcostduetothevolumeofwafersprocessedandthe
low power consumption feature of MOSFETs, which
makesitsuitableforportableapplications.

Issues
Accuratedevicemodelsbecomecrucialtocorrectly
predictthecircuitperformance
RFmodelwiththeconsiderationoftheHFbehaviorof
bothintrinsicandextrinsiccomponentsinMOSFETsis
extremelyimportantforachievingaccurateandpredictive
resultsinthesimulationofadesignedcircuit
Sofar,mostcompactMOSFETmodelsdonotincludethe
gateresistanceRG.However,thethermalnoise
contributedbythegateresistanceshouldbeconsidered
asMOStransistorsapproachgigahertzfrequencies
theresistiveandcapacitive(RC)effectsatthegateshould
bewellmodelled
Substrateresistanceshouldbealsoconsidered

EQUIVALENTCIRCUIT(EC)
REPRESENTATION
OFMOSTRANSISTORS
a four terminal MOSFET can be divided into
twoportions:
intrinsic part : The intrinsic part is the core
of the device without including those
parasitics
extrinsicpart:Theextrinsicpartconsistsof
alltheparasiticcomponents

AMOSFETschematiccrosssectionwiththe
parasiticcomponents

EquivalentCircuitREPRESENTATION
OFMOSTRANSISTORScontd...
Foranintrinsicdevice,ACsmallsignalcurrentsreferringto
thesourceofthedevicecanbecalculatedbythefollowing

where
vGSi,vDSi,andvBSiaretheACvoltagesattheintrinsicgate,at
theintrinsicdrain,andattheintrinsicbulk(allreferringtothe
intrinsicsource);
iGi,iDi,andiBiarethealternatingcurrents(AC)throughthe
intrinsicgate,throughtheintrinsicdrain,andthroughtheintrinsic
bulk;
Gm,GDS,andGmbarethetransconductance,channel
conductance,andbulktransconductanceofthedevice,
respectively

ECREPRESENTATIONOFMOS
TRANSISTORScontd...
Cxyiareintrinsiccapacitancesbetweenthe
terminalswiththefollowingdefinitions

ECREPRESENTATIONOFMOS
TRANSISTORScontd...

ECREPRESENTATIONOFMOS
TRANSISTORScontd...
Assumptions
the components between the gate and the other
terminals can be considered as purely capacitive with
infinite resistance, so the gate current in Eq. does not
containanyconductivecurrentcomponent
Similarly, the components between the bulk and the
other terminals can be also considered as purely
capacitivewithinfinite resistance, so thebulk current in
Eq.doesnotcontainanyconductivecurrentcomponent
Those assumptions can usually hold for an intrinsic
MOSFET because of the very low leakage currents
throughthegatetootherterminalsandthroughthebulk
tootherterminalsinaMOSFET

ECREPRESENTATIONOFMOS
TRANSISTORScontd...
Rearrangingtheequation,weget

ECREPRESENTATIONOFMOS
TRANSISTORScontd...
whereCm,Cmb,andCmgbarethedifferences
ofthetranscapacitancesbetweenthedrain
andthegate,betweenthedrainandthebulk,
andbetweenthegateandthebulk,andare

IntrinsicMOSFET

ExtrinsicCapacitances
Withtheinclusionofthoseextrinsic
capacitances

ResistancesinSubstrate
forDCandlowfrequencyapplications,theparasitic
resistancesatthegateandsubstratecanbeignored
At HF, however, these parasitic resistances will
influence the device performance significantly and
they all should be modeled and included in the EC
forthedevice
Theresistancesinthesubstratecanbemodeledby
differentECnetworks,suchasfiveresistornetwork,
fourresistornetworkproposedbyLiuetal.(1997),
threeresistor network proposed by Cheng et al.
`(1998), tworesistor network by Ou et al. (1998),
andoneresistornetworkbyTinetal.

fiveresistornetwork

fourresistornetwork

Anequivalentcircuitwith
bothintrinsicand
extrinsiccomponents

HIGHFREQUENCYBEHAVIOROFMOS
TRANSISTORSANDACSMALLSIGNAL
MODELING
compact models for HF applications are more
difficult to develop owing to the additional
requirementsof
bias dependence and geometry scaling of the
parasiticcomponents
accurate prediction of the distortion and noise
behavior.

RFModelingApproach
A common modeling approach for RF
applications is to build subcircuits based on the
intrinsicMOSFETthathasbeenmodeledwellfor
analogapplicationsTheaccuracyofsuchamodel
dependson
how to establish subcircuits with the correct
understandingofthedevicephysicsinHFoperation,
howtomodeltheHFbehaviorofintrinsicdevicesand
extrinsicparasitics,and
how to extract parameters appropriately for the
elementsofthesubcircuit.

RFModelingApproachcondt
Withaddedparasiticcomponentsatthegate,at
thesource,atthedrain,andatthesubstrate,
thesemodelscanreasonablywellpredicttheHF
ACsmallsignalcharacteristicsofshortchannel
(<0.5m)devicesupto10GHz.
Furtherneededare:
improvingtheRFmodelsindescribingtheAC
characteristicsmoreaccurately,andin
improvingthepredictionofnoisecharacteristics,
distortionbehavior,andnonquasistatic(NQS)
behavior.

RequirementsforMOSFETModeling
forRFApplications
Likeinlowfrequencyapplication,suchascontinuity,accuracy,and
scalabilityoftheDCandcapacitancemodelsshouldberetained
Themodelshouldaccuratelypredictbiasdependenceofsmall
signalparametersatHFoperation.
Themodelshouldcorrectlydescribethenonlinearbehaviorofthe
devicesinordertopermitaccuratesimulationofintermodulation
distortionandhighspeedlargesignaloperation.
ThemodelshouldcorrectlyandaccuratelypredictHFnoise,which
isimportantforthedesignoflownoiseamplifiers(LNAs).
ThemodelshouldincludetheNQSeffect
ThecomponentsinthedevelopedECmodelshouldbephysics
basedandgeometricallyscaleablesothatthemodelcanbeusedin
predictiveandstatisticalmodelingforRFapplications.

RFModelingApproachcondt
Toachievetheabove,themodelfortheintrinsicdeviceshouldbe
derivedwiththe

normalandreverseshortchannelandnarrowwidtheffects,
channellengthmodulation,
draininducedbarrierlowering(DIBL),
velocitysaturation,mobilitydegradationduetoverticalelectricfield,
impactionization,
bandtobandtunneling,
polysilicondepletion,
velocityovershoot,
selfheating,andchannelquantization.
Also,thecontinuitiesofsmallsignalparameterssuchas
transconductanceGm,channelconductanceGDS,andtheintrinsic
transcapacitancesmustbemodeledproperly.

ModelingoftheIntrinsicComponents
ThemodelaccuracyinfittingsofHFsmall
signalparametersandlargesignaldistortion
ofanRFMOSFETisbasicallydeterminedby
theDCandcapacitancemodels
theelectricfieldneedtobemodeled,
thechannelchargeneedtobemodeled
themobilityneedtobemodeledcarefullyto
describethecurrentcharacteristicsaccurately
differentphysicaleffectscanbeaddedinthe
model

ChannelChargeModel
twotypesofchargemodels:
thresholdvoltage(Vth)basedmodels account
fortheinfluenceofsomeprocessparameters
suchasoxidethicknessanddopinganddevice
parameterssuchaschannellengthandwidth
surfacepotential(s)basedmodels basedon
theanalysisofthesurfacepotentialthatwill
appearintheIVmodel

Mobility
MobilityisanotherkeyparameterinMOSFETmodeling

MOSFETintrinsiccapacitancemodels
categorizedintotwogroups:
MeyerandMeyerlikecapacitancemodels simpler
thanthechargebasedmodels,sotheyareefficient
andfasterincomputations.Buttheyassumethatthe
capacitancesintheintrinsicMOSFETarereciprocal
chargebasedcapacitancemodels ensurecharge
conservationandconsiderthenonreciprocal
propertyofthecapacitancesinaMOSFETdescribes
capacitiveeffect.
UsefulespeciallyforRFapplicationsinwhichtheinfluenceof
transcapacitancesarecritical.Butusuallythechargebased
capacitancemodelsrequirecomplexequationstodescribeallof
the16capacitancesinaMOSFETwithfourterminals

HFBehaviorandModelingofthe
ExtrinsicComponents
modelingofparasiticsareveryimportant
followingissuesshouldbeconsideredindevelopinga
MOSFETmodelfordeepsubmicronRFapplications:
Thegateresistanceshouldbemodeledandincludedinthe
simulation.
Theextrinsicsourceanddrainresistancesshouldbemodeledas
realexternalresistors,insteadofonlyacorrectiontothedrain
currentwithavirtualcomponent.
SubstratecouplinginaMOSFET,thatis,thecontributionof
substrateresistance,needstobemodeledphysicallyand
accuratelyusingappropriatesubstratenetworkforthemodelto
beusedinRFapplications.
Abiasdependentoverlapcapacitancemodel,whichaccurately
describestheparasiticcapacitivecontributionsbetweenthegate
andthedrain/source,needstobeincluded

RGModeling

RG,polyisthedistributedgateelectroderesistancefromthepolysilicon
gatematerialandisgivenbyEq.(3.22)andRG,nqsistheNQSdistributed
channelresistanceseenfromthegateandisafunctionofbothbiasesand
geometry.

RGshisthegatesheetresistance,Wfisthechannelwidthperfinger,Lfis
thechannellength,Nfisthenumberoffingers,andWextistheextension
ofthepolysilicongateovertheactiveregion

Gmisthetransconductanceofthedeviceand isafittingparameterwith
atypicalvaluearound0.2

RGEquivalent

Modelingofsourceanddrain
resistances

HFbehaviorandmodelingof
substrateresistance
inRFICs,thesubstrateresistancecan
contributesignificantlytothedevicebehavior,
mainlyoutputadmittance

 whereCSBandCDBarethetotalsourcetobulkanddrain
tobulkcapacitances,
CSB,KandCDB,Karethesourcetobulkanddraintobulk
capacitancesofeachsourceanddrainregioninthe
multifingerdevice,
NsandNdarethenumbersofthesourceanddrainregions,
RSB,RDB,andRDSBarethetotalequivalentresistances
betweenthesourceandthesubstrate,betweenthedrain
andthesubstrate,andbetweenthesourceandthedrain
underneaththechannelinthesubstrate,
RSB,K,RDB,K,andRDSB,Karetheresistances,
correspondingtoeachsinglesource/drain.

Highfrequencybehaviorand
modelingofparasiticcapacitances

MODELPARAMETEREXTRACTION
RFMeasurementandDeembedding
Techniques
ToextracttheRFmodelparameters,onchipHF
measurementsareperformedbyusingspecifically
designedteststructures
Adeembeddingmethodologyhastobe
developedtoremovetheinfluenceofthe
parasiticsintheteststructurefromthemeasured
rawdatainordertoobtainthedataforthe
characteristicsofthedeviceundertest(DUT)

ParameterExtraction
Usually,theY parameteranalysisoftheECis
adoptedtoobtainthenecessaryequationsto
extractthevaluesofsomeresistiveand
capacitivecomponents.
Terminalandsubstrateresistanceareneglected
TheparametersrelatedtotheDCcharacteristics
areextractedwiththedatafromtheDC
measurements
InordertoextracttheACparameters,the
influencefromtheintrinsiccomponentshasto
beminimized.

MOSFETIntrinsicCapacitances
TheMOSFEThasintrinsiccapacitanceswhich
affectits
performanceathighfrequencies:
1. gateoxidecapacitancebetweenthegateandchannel,
2. overlapandfringingcapacitancesbetweenthegateandthe
source/drainregions,and
3. sourcebulk&drainbulkjunctioncapacitances(CSB &CDB).

HighFrequencyMOSFETModel
Thegateoxidecapacitancecanbedecomposed
intoacapacitancebetweenthegateandthe
source(C1)andacapacitancebetweenthegate
andthedrain(C2).
Insaturation,C1 (2/3)Cgate,andC2 0.
C1 inparallelwiththesourceoverlap/fringingcapacitance CGS
C2 inparallelwiththedrainoverlap/fringingcapacitance CGD

Example
CS stage

with MOSFET capacitances

explicitly shown

Simplified circuit for

high-frequency analysis

ThankYou