Neutral base recombination and its influence on the temperaturedependence of Early voltage and current gain-Early voltage product inUHV/CVD SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors |
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Authors: | Joseph AJ Cressler JD Richey DM Jaeger RC Harame DL |
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Affiliation: | Alabama Microelectron. Sci. & Technol. Center, Auburn Univ., AL; |
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Abstract: | We present the first comprehensive investigation of neutral base recombination (NBR) in ultra-high vacuum/chemical vapor deposited (UHV/CVD) SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's), and its influence on the temperature characteristics of Early voltage (VA ) and current gain-Early voltage product (βVA). We show that a direct consequence of NBR in SiGe HBT's is the degradation of VA when transistors are operated with constant-current input (forced-IB) as opposed to a constant-voltage input (forced-VBE). In addition, experimental and theoretical evidence indicates that with cooling, VA in SiGe HBT's degrades faster than in Si bipolar junction transistors (BJT's) for forced-IB mode of operation. Under the forced-VBE mode of operation, however, SiGe HBT's exhibit a thermally-activated behavior for both VA and βVA, in agreement with the first-order theory. The differences in VA as a function of the input bias and temperature for SiGe HBT's are accurately modeled using a modified version of SPICE. The performance of various practical SiGe HBT circuits as a function of temperature, in the presence of NBR, is analyzed using this calibrated SPICE model |
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