A comparison of low-frequency noise characteristics and noise sources in NPN and PNP InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors

Low-frequency noise characteristics of NPN and PNP InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) were investigated. NPN HBTs showed a lower base noise current level (3.85 /spl times/ 10/sup -17/ A/sup 2//Hz) than PNP HBTs (3.10 /spl times/ 10/sup -16/ A/sup 2//Hz), but higher collector noise current level (7.16 /spl times/ 10/sup -16/ A/sup 2//Hz) than PNP HBTs (1.48 /spl times/ 10/sup -16/ A/sup 2//Hz) at 10 Hz under I/sub C/=1 mA, V/sub C/=1 V. The NPN devices showed a weak dependence I/sub C//sup 0.77/ of the collector noise current, and a dependence I/sub B//sup 1.18/ of the base noise current, while the PNP devices showed dependences I/sub C//sup 1.92/ and I/sub B//sup 1.54/, respectively. The dominant noise sources and relative intrinsic noise strength were found in both NPN and PNP InP-based HBTs by comparing the noise spectral density with and without the emitter feedback resistor. Equivalent circuit models were employed and intrinsic noise sources were extracted. The high base noise current of PNP HBTs could be attributed to the exposed emitter periphery and higher electron surface recombination velocity in P-type InP materials, while the relatively high collector noise current of NPN HBTs may be due to the noise source originating from generation-recombination process in the bulk material between the emitter and the collector.     

Low-frequency noise characteristics of p-n-p InAlAs/InGaAs HBTs

The low-frequency noise characteristics of p-n-p InAlAs/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) were investigated. Devices with various geometries were measured under different bias conditions. The base noise current spectral density (3.11 /spl times/ 10/sup -16/ A/sup 2//Hz) was found to be higher than the collector noise current spectral density (1.48 /spl times/ 10/sup -16/ A/sup 2//Hz) at 10 Hz under low bias condition (I/sub C/=1 mA, V/sub EC/=1 V), while the base noise current spectral density (2.04 /spl times/ 10/sup -15/ A/sup 2//Hz) is lower than the collector noise current spectral density (7.87 /spl times/ 10/sup -15/ A/sup 2//Hz) under high bias condition (I/sub C/=10 mA, V/sub EC/=2 V). The low-frequency noise sources were identified using the emitter-feedback technique. The results suggest that the low-frequency noise is a surface-related process. In addition, the dominant noise sources varied with bias levels.     

Efficient amplification using the /sup 4/F/sub 3/2//spl rarr//sup 4/I/sub 9/2/ transition in Nd-doped silica fiber

Amplification characteristics of the three-level /sup 4/F/sub 3/2//spl rarr//sup 4/I/sub 9/2/ transition in Nd-doped silica glass fiber are investigated under strong signal saturation and high pump power (150 mW). Aluminum codoped Nd-silica fibers exhibit strong superfluorescent behavior in the four-level /sup 4/F/sub 3/2//spl rarr//sup 4/I/sub 11/2/ transition which limits the optical conversion efficiency into the three-level transition. Ge-doped silica fibers do not exhibit this limitation and can efficiently amplify in the three-level transition with current laser-diode pump technology.     

A high current gain 4H-SiC NPN power bipolar junction transistor

This work reports the development of high power 4H-SiC bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) by using reduced implantation dose for p+ base contact region and annealing in nitric oxide of base-to-emitter junction passivation oxide for 2 hours at 1150/spl deg/C. The transistor blocks larger than 480 V and conducts 2.1 A (J/sub c/=239 A/cm/sup 2/) at V/sub ce/=3.4 V, corresponding to a specific on-resistance (R/sub sp on/) of 14 m/spl Omega/cm/sup 2/, based on a drift layer design of 12 /spl mu/m doped to 6/spl times/10/sup 15/cm/sup -3/. Current gain /spl beta//spl ges/35 has been achieved for collector current densities ranging from J/sub c/=40 A/cm/sup 2/ to 239 A/cm/sup 2/ (I/sub c/=2.1 A) with a peak current gain of 38 at J/sub c/=114 A/cm/sup 2/.     

Nonintersecting subspaces based on finite alphabets

Two subspaces of a vector space are here called "nonintersecting" if they meet only in the zero vector. Motivated by the design of noncoherent multiple-antenna communications systems, we consider the following question. How many pairwise nonintersecting M/sub t/-dimensional subspaces of an m-dimensional vector space V over a field F can be found, if the generator matrices for the subspaces may contain only symbols from a given finite alphabet A/spl sube/F? The most important case is when F is the field of complex numbers C; then M/sub t/ is the number of antennas. If A=F=GF(q) it is shown that the number of nonintersecting subspaces is at most (q/sup m/-1)/(q/sup Mt/-1), and that this bound can be attained if and only if m is divisible by M/sub t/. Furthermore, these subspaces remain nonintersecting when "lifted" to the complex field. It follows that the finite field case is essentially completely solved. In the case when F=C only the case M/sub t/=2 is considered. It is shown that if A is a PSK-configuration, consisting of the 2/sup r/ complex roots of unity, the number of nonintersecting planes is at least 2/sup r(m-2)/ and at most 2/sup r(m-1)-1/ (the lower bound may in fact be the best that can be achieved).     

Application of high-quality SiO/sub 2/ grown by multipolar ECR source to Si/SiGe MISFET

A 5 nm-thick SiO/sub 2/ gate was grown on an Si (p/sup +/)/Si/sub 0.8/Ge/sub 0.2/ modulation-doped heterostructure at 26 degrees C with an oxygen plasma generated by a multipolar electron cyclotron resonance source. The ultrathin oxide has breakdown field >12 MV/cm and fixed charge density approximately 3*10/sup 16/ cm/sup -2/. Leakage current as low as 1 mu A was obtained with the gate biased at 4 V. The MISFET with 0.25*25 mu m/sup 2/ gate shows maximum drain current of 41.6 mA/mm and peak transconductance of 21 mS/mm.<>     

High-performance MIM capacitor using ALD high-k HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate dielectrics

For the first time, we successfully fabricated and demonstrated high performance metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors with HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate dielectric using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. Our data indicates that the laminate MIM capacitor can provide high capacitance density of 12.8 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/ from 10 kHz up to 20 GHz, very low leakage current of 3.2 /spl times/ 10/sup -8/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 3.3 V, small linear voltage coefficient of capacitance of 240 ppm/V together with quadratic one of 1830 ppm/V/sup 2/, temperature coefficient of capacitance of 182 ppm//spl deg/C, and high breakdown field of /spl sim/6 MV/cm as well as promising reliability. As a result, the HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate is a very promising candidate for next generation MIM capacitor for radio frequency and mixed signal integrated circuit applications.     

A novel InGaP/Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As/GaAs CEHBT

A new and interesting InGaP/Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As/GaAs composite-emitter heterojunction bipolar transistor (CEHBT) is fabricated and studied. Based on the insertion of a compositionally linear graded Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As layer, a near-continuous conduction band structure between the InGaP emitter and the GaAs base is developed. Simulation results reveal that a potential spike at the emitter/base heterointerface is completely eliminated. Experimental results show that the CEHBT exhibits good dc performances with dc current gain of 280 and greater than unity at collector current densities of J/sub C/=21kA/cm/sup 2/ and 2.70/spl times/10/sup -5/ A/cm/sup 2/, respectively. A small collector/emitter offset voltage /spl Delta/V/sub CE/ of 80 meV is also obtained. The studied CEHBT exhibits transistor action under an extremely low collector current density (2.7/spl times/10/sup -5/ A/cm/sup 2/) and useful current gains over nine decades of magnitude of collector current density. In microwave characteristics, the unity current gain cutoff frequency f/sub T/=43.2GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency f/sub max/=35.1GHz are achieved for a 3/spl times/20 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ device. Consequently, the studied device shows promise for low supply voltage and low-power circuit applications.     

Fully silicided NiSi gate on La/sub 2/O/sub 3/ MOSFETs

We have fabricated the fully silicided NiSi on La/sub 2/O/sub 3/ for n- and p-MOSFETs. For 900/spl deg/C fully silicided CoSi/sub 2/ on La/sub 2/O/sub 3/ gate dielectric with 1.5 nm EOT, the gate dielectric has large leakage current by possible excess Co diffusion at high silicidation temperature. In sharp contrast, very low gate leakage current density of 2/spl times/10/sup -4/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 1 V is measured for 400/spl deg/C formed fully silicided NiSi and comparable with Al gate. The extracted work function of NiSi was 4.42 eV, and the corresponding threshold voltages are 0.12 and -0.70 V for respective n- and p-MOSFETs. Electron and hole mobilities of 156 and 44 cm/sup 2//V-s are obtained for respective n- and p-MOSFETs, which are comparable with the HfO/sub 2/ MOSFETs without using H/sub 2/ annealing.     

Modeling and characterization of SiGe HBT low-frequency noise figures-of-merit for RFIC applications

We present the first systematic experimental and modeling results of noise corner frequency (f/sub C/) and noise corner frequency to cutoff frequency ratio (f/sub C//f/sub T/) for SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in a commercial SiGe RF technology. The f/sub C/ and f/sub C//f/sub T/ ratio are investigated as a function of operating collector current density, SiGe profile, breakdown voltage, and transistor geometry. We demonstrate that both the f/sub C/ and f/sub C//f/sub T/ ratio can be significantly reduced by careful SiGe profile optimization. A comparison of the f/sub C/ and f/sub C//f/sub T/ ratio for high breakdown and standard breakdown voltage devices is made. Geometrical scaling data show that the SiGe HBT with A/sub E/=0.5/spl times/2.5 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ has the lowest f/sub C/ and f/sub C//f/sub T/ ratio compared to other device geometries. An f/sub C/ reduction of nearly 50% can be achieved by choosing this device as the unit cell in RF integrated-circuit design.     

Electronic changes of refractive index in intensively pumped Nd:YAG laser crystals

Refractive index changes accompanying changes in population of electron levels of Nd/sup 3+/ ions in a Nd:YAG laser crystal under intensive diode and laser pumping have been studied using a highly sensitive polarization interferometer. An electronic change of the index due to population of the /sup 4/F/sub 3/2/ level is measured to be high (comparable with the thermal component) in the crystal under QCW diode-stack pumping (at 808 nm). The electronic component increased dramatically under pumping by an additional laser (at 266 nm) due to population of a higher-lying level /sup 2/F(2)/sub 5/2/. Analytical estimation reveals a predominating contribution of the well-allowed 4f-5d inter-shell transitions in polarizability of the excited levels /sup 4/F/sub 3/2/ and /sup 2/F(2)/sub 5/2/ both at a testing wavelength of 633 nm and at a wavelength of the strongest laser transition 1064.2 nm.     

Improvement of voltage linearity in high-/spl kappa/ MIM capacitors using HfO/sub 2/-SiO/sub 2/ stacked dielectric

It is demonstrated that the voltage coefficients of capacitance (VCC) in high-/spl kappa/ metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors can be actively engineered and voltage linearity can be significantly improved maintaining high capacitance density, by using a stacked insulator structure of high-/spl kappa/ and SiO/sub 2/ dielectrics. A MIM capacitor with capacitance density of 6 fF/spl mu/m/sup 2/ and quadratic VCC of only 14 ppm/V/sup 2/ has been demonstrated together with excellent frequency and temperature dependence (temperature coefficients of capacitance of 54 ppm /spl deg/C) as well as low leakage current of less than 10 nA/cm/sup 2/ up to 4 V at 125 /spl deg/C.     

High voltage (>1kV) and high current gain (32) 4H-SiC power BJTs using Al-free ohmic contact to the base

This letter reports the design and fabrication of 4H-SiC bipolar junction transistors with both high voltage (>1kV) and high dc current gain (/spl beta/=32) at a collector current level of I/sub c/=3.83A (J/sub c/=319 A/cm/sup 2/). An Al-free base ohmic contact has been used which, when compared with BJTs fabricated with Al-based base contact, shows clearly improved blocking voltage. A specific on-resistance of 17 m/spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/ has been achieved for collector current densities up to 289 A/cm/sup 2/.     

Improved NiSi salicide process using presilicide N/sub 2//sup +/ implant for MOSFETs

An improved Ni salicide process has been developed by incorporating nitrogen (N/sub 2//sup +/) implant prior to Ni deposition to widen the salicide processing temperature window. Salicided poly-Si gate and active regions of different linewidths show improved thermal stability with low sheet resistance up to a salicidation temperature of 700 and 750/spl deg/C, respectively. Nitrogen was found to be confined within the NiSi layer and reduced agglomeration of the silicide. Phase transformation to the undesirable high resistivity NiSi/sub 2/ phase was delayed, likely due to a change in the interfacial energy. The electrical results of N/sub 2//sup +/ implanted Ni-salicided PMOSFETs show higher drive current and lower junction leakage as compared to devices with no N/sub 2//sup +/ implant.     

A highly reliable 3-D integrated SBT ferroelectric capacitor enabling FeRAM scaling

Ferroelectric random access memories (FeRAMs) combine very attractive properties such as low-voltage operation, fast write and nonvolatility. However, unlike Flash memories, FeRAMs are difficult to scale along with the CMOS technology roadmap, mainly because of the decrease of available signal with decreasing cell area. One solution for further scaling is to integrate three-dimensional (3-D) FeCAPs. In this paper, we have integrated a 3-D FeCAP structure in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology whereby the effective area of <1 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ single FeCAPs is increased by a factor of almost two. We show that, after optimization of the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) deposition and post-anneal steps of the Sr/sub 0.8/Bi/sub 2.2/Ta/sub 2/O/sub 9/ (SBT) layer, the sidewall SBT contributes to the polarization Pr, resulting in higher Pr values for 0.81-/spl mu/m/sup 2/ three-dimensional (3-D) capacitors (2Pr/spl ap/15 /spl mu/C/cm/sup 2/) than for 1000 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ 2-D capacitors (2Pr/spl ap/10 /spl mu/C/cm/sup 2/). Moreover, these 3-D capacitors are observed to be fatigue-free and imprint-free up to 10/sup 11/ cycles (5-V square pulses), and extrapolations of retention tests indicate less than 10% Pr loss after ten years at 85/spl deg/C, which shows that sidewall SBT retains the same excellent reliability properties as 2-D capacitors. We demonstrate in this paper that the negative signal-scaling trend can be halted using 3-D FeCAPs. To our knowledge, this paper is the first report on electrical and reliability properties of integrated 3-D FeCAPs, and is a starting point for future development work on densely scaled FeRAMs.     

Analysis and simulation of a mid-infrared P/sup +/-InAs/sub 0.55/Sb/sub 0.15/P/sub 0.30//n/sup 0/-InAs/sub 0.89/Sb/sub 0.11//N/sup +/-InAs/sub 0.55/Sb/sub 0.15/P/sub 0.30/ double heterojunction photodetector grown by LPE

A photovoltaic detector based on an N/sup +/-InAs/sub 0.55/Sb/sub 0.15/P/sub 0.30//n/sup 0/-InAs/sub 0.89/Sb/sub 0./$ d1/sub 1//P/sup +/-InAs/sub 0.55/Sb/sub 0.15/P/sub 0.30/ double heterostructure (DH) suitable for operation in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral region (2 to 5 /spl mu/m) at room temperature has been studied. A physics based closed form model of the device has been developed to investigate the relative importance of the different mechanisms which determine dark current and photoresponse. The results obtained on the basis of the model have been compared and contrasted with those obtained from experimental measurements on DH detectors fabricated previously in our laboratory using liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). The model helps to explain the various physical mechanisms that shape the characteristics of the device under room temperature operation. It can also be used to optimize the performance of the photodetector in respect of dark current, responsivity and detectivity. A comparison of theoretical predictions and experimental results revealed that Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination is more important than Auger recombination in determining the room temperature detector performance when the concentration of nonradiative recombination centers in our material exceeds 10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/. Furthermore, compositional grading in the cladding regions of the double heterostructure has been found to be responsible for the reduction of the detectivity of the device in the shorter wavelength region.     

InAlN/GaN HEMTs: a first insight into technological optimization

High-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were fabricated from heterostructures consisting of undoped In/sub 0.2/Al/sub 0.8/N barrier and GaN channel layers grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy on (0001) sapphire substrates. The polarization-induced two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density and mobility at the In/sub 0.2/Al/sub 0.8/N/GaN heterojunction were 2/spl times/10/sup 13/ cm/sup -2/ and 260 cm/sup 2/V/sup -1/s/sup -1/, respectively. A tradeoff was determined for the annealing temperature of Ti/Al/Ni/Au ohmic contacts in order to achieve a low contact resistance (/spl rho//sub C/=2.4/spl times/10/sup -5/ /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/) without degradation of the channels sheet resistance. Schottky barrier heights were 0.63 and 0.84 eV for Ni- and Pt-based contacts, respectively. The obtained dc parameters of 1-/spl mu/m gate-length HEMT were 0.64 A/mm drain current at V/sub GS/=3 V and 122 mS/mm transconductance, respectively. An HEMT analytical model was used to identify the effects of various material and device parameters on the InAlN/GaN HEMT performance. It is concluded that the increase in the channel mobility is urgently needed in order to benefit from the high 2DEG density.     

Microwave performance of pseudomorphic resonant-tunnelling hot electron transistors at 77 K

Describes the first 77 K microwave measurements for resonant-tunnelling hot electron transistors (RHETs) fabricated using GaInAs/AlInAs pseudomorphic heterostructures. A collector current peak-to-valley ratio of 10 is obtained with a peak collector current density of 2*10/sup 5/ A/cm/sup 2/. A current gain cut-off frequency f/sub T/ of 63 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency f/sub max/ of 44 GHz are measured at 77 K with an emitter current density of 1.1*10/sup 5/ A/cm/sup 2/.<>     

1000-V, 30-A 4H-SiC BJTs with high current gain

This paper presents the development of 1000 V, 30A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) with high dc current gain in 4H-SiC. BJT devices with an active area of 3/spl times/3 mm/sup 2/ showed a forward on-current of 30 A, which corresponds to a current density of 333 A/cm/sup 2/, at a forward voltage drop of 2 V. A common-emitter current gain of 40, along with a low specific on-resistance of 6.0m/spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/ was observed at room temperature. These results show significant improvement over state-of-the-art. High temperature current-voltage characteristics were also performed on the large-area bipolar junction transistor device. A collector current of 10A is observed at V/sub CE/=2 V and I/sub B/=600 mA at 225/spl deg/C. The on-resistance increases to 22.5 m/spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/ at higher temperatures, while the dc current gain decreases to 30 at 275/spl deg/C. A sharp avalanche behavior was observed at a collector voltage of 1000 V. Inductive switching measurements at room temperature with a power supply voltage of 500 V show fast switching with a turn-off time of about 60 ns and a turn-on time of 32 ns, which is a result of the low resistance in the base.     

Successful enhancement of lifetime for SiO/sub 2/ on 4H-SiC by N/sub 2/O anneal

Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) measurement by constant current stress has been performed to investigate the oxide (SiO/sub 2/) reliability grown on n-type 4H-SiC. At 300K, the intrinsic injected charge to breakdown (Q/sub BD/) of thermally grown SiO/sub 2/ in wet O/sub 2/ ambience is about 0.1 C/cm/sup 2/, whereas N/sub 2/O anneal after the thermal oxidation results in the drastic improvement of the reliability. The intrinsic Q/sub BD/ of N/sub 2/O annealed SiO/sub 2/ is found to be 10 C/cm/sup 2/, which is two orders of magnitude larger than that of the oxide without N/sub 2/O anneal, suggesting that the quality of SiO/sub 2/ and/or SiO/sub 2//SiC interface is improved. TDDB measurement has been also performed at high temperatures up to 423 K. The activation energy of oxide lifetime estimated from time to failure of 80% is 0.35 and 0.10 eV for the oxide with and without N/sub 2/O anneal, respectively.