Low noise design issues for analog front-end electronics in 130 nm and 90 nm CMOS technologies

Deep sub-micron CMOS technologies provide well established solutions to the implementation of low-noise front-end electronics in various detector applications. The IC designers’ effort is presently shifting to 130 nm CMOS technologies, or even to the next technology node, to implement readout integrated circuits for silicon strip and pixel detectors, in view of future HEP applications. In this work the results of noise measurements carried out on CMOS devices in 130 nm and 90 nm commercial processes are presented. The behavior of the 1/f and white noise terms is studied as a function of the device polarity and of the gate length and width. The study is focused on low current density applications where devices are biased in weak or moderate inversion. Data obtained from the measurements provide a powerful tool to establish design criteria in nanoscale CMOS processes for detector front-ends in LHC upgrades.