A Transmission-Line Based Technique for De-Embedding Noise Parameters

A transmission line-based de-embedding technique for on-wafer S-parameter measurements is extended to the noise parameters of MOSFETs and HBTs. Since it accounts for the distributed effects of interconnect lines and for the pad-interconnect discontinuity, it is expected to yield more accurate results at high frequencies than existing approaches. Furthermore, by requiring only two transmission line test structures to de-embed all test structures in a (Bi)CMOS process, it is one of the most area-efficient. Experimental validation is provided on SiGe HBTs and on 90 nm and 130 nm n-MOSFETs and its accuracy is compared with that of other lumped or distributed de-embedding techniques.