Low-frequency noise study in electron devices: Review and update

Low-frequency noise or flicker noise has been found in many systems and has become a hot research topic for more than eight decades. It was believed that there exists a common origin of this kind of noise for different systems. The common origin theories were shook as more experiments on electron devices were conducted. For electronic system, it is easier to produce samples with different noise behaviors via different fabrication processes, measurement conditions such as temperature, stressing, biasing etc. More and more studies suggest that if there is a common regime for the low-frequency noise, it must be mathematical rather than physical ones. These mathematical processes give rise to 1/f spectrum could be due to the distribution of time constant in spatial or energy-wise and the non-linear transformation of Gaussian signal. This paper presents a historical review on the development of low-frequency noise study in electron devices and the recent progresses in the understanding and modeling are updated. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.