Evaluation of Metal–Semiconductor Contact Quality: Correlation of 1/f Noise and Nonlinearity

Measurement of 1/f noise emerges as a valuable tool for contact quality evaluation, which simultaneously provides information about the 1/f noise magnitude and nonlinearity of the contact. This article investigates experimentally the correlation of current–voltage characteristics nonlinearity and 1/f noise for the metal–semiconductor–metal structure. It was found that the nonlinearity and 1/f noise originate from metal–semiconductor contact. The relative 1/f noise of weak-nonlinear, roughly ohmic contact, is proportional to the parameter describing the nonlinearity. Further increase of contact nonlinearity, by decreasing the temperature, substantially increases the 1/f noise magnitude. The efforts to develop low-noise semiconductor devices should be focused on avoiding even weak nonlinearity of contacts because it results in substantial 1/f noise.