7 Key Changes, Analog Designers Will Need to Make

6. High Flicker Noise Corner Frequency

Flicker noise in FinFET is a lot more dominant than in planar geometries and the corner frequency can be as high as 100 MHz. Its impact on noise sensitive circuits such as VCOs, PLLs and receiver amplifiers can, therefore, be huge. 

Obviously, increasing the size of the devices reduces the noise, but this comes at expenses of RF performance. Alternatively, some of these issues can be resolved at system level; for example, careful frequency planning of the receiver can ensure baseband operation at frequencies above the flicker corner, and relax the associated block-level specifications.

1. 7 Key Changes, Analog Designers Will Need to Make
2. 1. Do not Mix Devices Having Different Dimensions
3. 2. Use Repeatable Patterns
4. 3. Estimate Interconnect Parasitics From the Start
5. 4. Use Digital Calibration to Correct Analog Errors
6. 5. Current Density limits the Transmitter Output Power
7. 6. High Flicker Noise Corner Frequency
8. 7. Simulations Are Slow