Residual phase noise modeling of amplifiers using silicon bipolar transistors

In this paper, we describe the modeling of residual 1/f phase noise for Si bipolar amplifiers operating in the linear region. We propose that for Si bipolar amplifiers, the 1/f phase noise is largely caused by the base emitter recombination flicker noise. The up-conversion mechanism is described through linear approximation of the phase variation of the amplifier phase response by the variation of the device parameters (C_bc, C_be, g_m, r_e) caused by the recombination 1/f noise. The amplifier phase response describes the device over the whole frequency range of operation for which the influence of the poles and zeros is investigated. It is found that for a common emitter amplifier it is sufficient to only incorporate the effect of the device poles to describe the phase noise behavior over most of its operational frequency range. Simulations predict the measurements of others, including the flattening of the PM noise at frequencies beyond f_3dB, not predicted by previous models.