An Analysis of Time-Domain Period Jitter due to Random Telegraph Noise in Phase-Locked Loops

Charge trapping and de-trapping phenomena are major sources of noise and aging in nanometer-scale devices, degrading their performance and reliability. Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) is a stochastic mechanism arising from the continuous capture and emission events of charge carriers by traps, causing the drain current (or threshold voltage) amplitude to fluctuate randomly from one instant in time to another. These fluctuations may cause variations in the oscillation period length (jitter) of oscillators. This work evaluates the time-domain period jitter induced by RTN in a charge-pump phase-locked loop (PLL), examining the relationship between the traps' corner (Lorentzian) or switching frequency, the PLL loop bandwidth, and the resulting jitter amplitude. It was observed that traps with switching frequencies close to the loop bandwidth of the closed-loop system lead to higher amplitudes of period jitter.