Energies and microstructures of defects contributing to 1/f noise in microelectronic materials and devices

In semiconductor devices, low-frequency noise typically results from fluctuations in the number of carriers due to charge exchange between the channel and defects at or near a critical semiconductor/insulator interface. Measurements of noise magnitude and its temperature and/or voltage dependence often enable estimates of the effective energy distributions of defects that lead to 1/f noise. The microstructures of several defects and/or impurities that cause noise in microelectronic devices and materials have been identified via experiments and first-principles calculation. Examples are shown for Si- and SiC-based MOS devices and GaN-based HEMTs.