Characterization of Noise in CMOS Ring Oscillators at Cryogenic Temperatures

Published

July 12, 2023

Author(s)

Prashansa Mukim, Pragya Shrestha, Advait Madhavan, Nitin Prasad, Jason Campbell, Forrest Brewer, Mark Stiles, Jabez J. McClelland

Abstract

Allan deviation provides a means to characterize the time-dependence of noise in oscillators and potentially identify the source characteristics. Measurements on a 130nm, 7-stage ring oscillator show that the Allan deviation declines from 300K to 150K as expected, but surprisingly increases from 150K to 11K. At low temperatures, the measured Allan deviation can be well fit using a few random telegraph noise (RTN) sources over the range of a few kilohertz to a few gigahertz. Further, the RTN characteristics evolve to reveal an enhanced role in low-frequency noise at lower temperatures.

Citation

IEEE Electron Device Letters

Volume

44

Issue

9

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2023.3294722

Local Download

Keywords

Allan deviation, CMOS ring oscillator, noise, random telegraph noise, temperature, traps

Citation

Mukim, P. , Shrestha, P. , Madhavan, A. , Prasad, N. , Campbell, J. , Brewer, F. , Stiles, M. and McClelland, J. (2023), Characterization of Noise in CMOS Ring Oscillators at Cryogenic Temperatures, IEEE Electron Device Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2023.3294722, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936783 (Accessed October 20, 2025)