High-Frequency Small Signal AC and Noise Modeling of MOSFETs for RF IC Design

In this paper, high-frequency (HF) AC and noise modeling of MOSFETs for radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit (IC) design is discussed. A subcircuit RF model incorporating the HF effects of parasitics is presented. This model is compared with the measured data for both $y$ parameter and $f_T$ characteristics. Good model accuracy is achieved against measurements for a 0.25 $\mu$ m RF CMOS technology. The HF noise predictivity of the model is also examined with measured data. Furthermore, a methodology to extract the channel thermal noise of MOSFETs from HF noise measurements is presented. By using the extracted channel thermal noise, any thermal noise models can be verified directly. Several noise models including the RF model discussed in this paper have been examined, and the results show that the RF model can predict the channel thermal noise better than the other models.