Extrinsic base surface passivation in GaInP/GaAs heterojunctionbipolar transistors

The authors demonstrate excellent passivation of the extrinsic base surfaces in GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) having small emitter areas. Passivated devices with an area as small as 4×20 μm² exhibit the highest reported current gain value of 2690 for GaInP/GaAs HBTs, while unpassivated 4×20-μm ² devices exhibit a current gain of only 500. Measured current gains as a function of collector current density are almost identical for devices with varying emitter widths of 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 100 μm. The current gains are also nearly identical for devices with varying passivation ledge widths of 1, 2, 3, and 6 μm. These results are contrasted with those of a previously published study reporting surface passivation for a GaInP/GaAs HBT with a large emitter area     

Avalanche multiplication in InP/InGaAs double heterojunctionbipolar transistors with composite collectors

The experimental and theoretical studies of electron multiplication in InP/InGaAs double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBT's) with an InGaAs/InP composite collector are carried out. Both local electric field model and energy model are used to investigate the electron impact ionization in the composite collector. The analysis reveals that the nonlocal effect of the electron impact ionization in the composite collector is responsible for the suppression of the contribution of electron multiplication in the InGaAs layer. Experimental results for the fabricated devices were compared with the theoretical calculations, indicating that the conventional impact ionization models based on the local electric field significantly overestimate the electron multiplication for the composite collector. The energy model which takes into account the nonlocal effect is found to provide a more accurate prediction of electron multiplication for the DHBT's     

Electron irradiation effects in AlGaAs/GaAs single heterojunctionbipolar transistors

The effects of high-energy electron irradiation on the dc characteristics of polyimide passivated AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs of different base thicknesses and different emitter sizes are investigated. The devices show gain degradation for doses greater than 10¹⁵ e/cm². The gain degradation of the passivated devices decreases (1) with increase in the base thickness, (2) with increase in the perimeter to area ratio of the emitter, and (3) with increase in the base current. Our results suggest that the observed gain degradation due to electron irradiation is mainly caused by an increase in the emitter-base junction space charge region recombination     

Microwave performance of a self-aligned GaInP/GaAs heterojunctionbipolar transistor

The microwave performance of a self-aligned GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) is presented. At an operating current density of 2.08×10⁴ A/cm², the measured cutoff frequency is 50 GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency extrapolated from measured unilateral gain and the maximum available gain are 116 and 81 GHz, respectively, all using 20-dB/decade slopes. These results are compared with other reported high-frequency performances of GaInP HBTs. In addition, these results are compared with AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs having a similar device structure     

Compositionally graded emitter InGa(As)P/GaAs heterojunctionbipolar transistors

The first successful fabrication of compositionally graded emitter InGa(As)P/GaAs HBTs is reported. It is found that the influence of recombination current in the emitter depletion layer on current gain characteristics by compositional grading is small. The recombination current in the InGa(As)P emitter layer is less than 1/10 that in an AlGaAs emitter layer grown at a 100°C higher temperature     

Fabrication and characteristics of a GaInP/GaAs heterojunctionbipolar transistor using a selective buried sub-collector

A C-doped GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) with a selective buried sub-collector has been fabricated by two growth steps. The active HBT region was made on the selective buried sub-collector layer with minimum overlap of the extrinsic base and the sub-collector region resulting in substantial reduction of the base-collector capacitance. The experiment shows that the base-collector capacitance is reduced to about half of that of a conventional HBT while the base resistance remains unchanged resulting in a 40-50% increase in the maximum oscillation frequency. Both DC and RF characteristics are investigated and compared with a conventional HBT. A current gain of 40, cutoff frequency of 50 GHz and maximum oscillation frequency of 140 GHz were obtained for the GaInP/GaAs HBT. It is demonstrated that the selective buried sub-collector provides an effective means for enhancing RF performance of an HBT     

DC modeling and characterization of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunctionbipolar transistors for high-temperature applications

The large signal dc characteristics of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) at high temperatures (27°-300°C) are reported. A high-temperature SPICE model is developed which includes the recombination-generation current components and avalanche multiplication which become extremely important at high temperatures. The effect of avalanche breakdown is also included to model the current due to thermal generation of electron/hole pairs causing breakdown at high temperatures. A parameter extraction program is developed and used to extract the model parameters of HBT's at different temperatures. Fitting functions for the model parameters as a function of temperature are developed. These parameters are then used in the SPICE Ebers-Moll model for the dc characterization of the HBT at any temperature between (27°-300°C)     

Comparison of GaInP/GaAs heterostructure-emitter bipolartransistors and heterojunction bipolar transistors

Carbon-doped GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) and heterostructure-emitter bipolar transistors (HEBT's) grown by MOCVD were fabricated. Experimental comparison of HBT's and HEBT's has been made based on the dc and the RF performance. HBT's have higher current gains than those of HEBT's in the high current regime, while HEBT's offer a smaller offset voltage and better uniformity in dc characteristics across the wafer. The current gain and cutoff frequency of the DEBT with a 150 Å emitter set-back layer are comparable to those of HBT's. DC (differential) current gains of 600 (900) and 560 (900) were obtained at a collector current density of 2.5×10⁴ A/cm² for the HBT and HEBT, respectively. The cutoff frequencies are 37 and 31 GHz for the HBT and HEBT, respectively. It is shown that there is negligible contribution of the diffusion capacitance to the emitter capacitance in HEBT's with a thin emitter set-back layer but not with a thick emitter set-back layer. The behavior of HEBT's both in dc and RF characteristics is similar to that of HBT's     

Power performance of InP-based single and double heterojunctionbipolar transistors

The microwave and power performance of fabricated InP-based single and double heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is presented. The single heterojunction bipolar transistors (SHBTs), which had a 5000 Å InGaAs collector, had BV_CEO of 7.2 V and J_Cmax of 2×10⁵ A/cm². The resulting HBTs with 2×10 μm² emitters produced up to 1.1 mW/μm2 at 8 GHz with efficiencies over 30%. Double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) with a 3000-Å InP collector had a BV_CEO of 9 V and J_{c max} of 1.1×10⁵ A/cm², resulting in power densities up to 1.9 mW/μm² at 8 GHz and a peak efficiency of 46%. Similar DHBTs with a 6000 Å InP collector had a higher BV_CEO of 18 V, but the J _{c max} decreased to 0.4×10⁵ A/cm² due to current blocking at the base-collector junction. Although the 6000 Å InP collector provided higher f_max and gain than the 3000 Å collector, the lower J_{c max} reduced its maximum power density below that of the SHBT wafer. The impact on power performance of various device characteristics, such as knee voltage, breakdown voltage, and maximum current density, are analyzed and discussed     

Negative differential resistance of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunctionbipolar transistors: influence of emitter edge current

We report an electrical characterisation of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors over a temperature range of 250 to 400 K in which the emitter edge current contribution to the negative differential output resistance (NDR) effect is determined. A quantitative analysis of the DC gain versus temperature and perimeter to area ratio indicates that emitter edge current has a major influence on the NDR magnitude     

Temperature dependence of current gain of GaInP/GaAs heterojunctionand heterostructure-emitter bipolar transistors

The temperature effect on current gain is presented for GaInP/GaAs heterojunction and heterostructure-emitter bipolar transistors (HBTs and HEBTs). Experimental results showed that the current gain of the HEBT increases with the increase of temperature in the temperature range of 25-125°C and decreases slightly at temperatures above 150°C. The smaller the collector current, the larger is the positive differential temperature coefficient. At high current levels, the current gain dependence on temperature is significantly reduced. On the other hand, a large negative coefficient is observed in the HBT in all current range. This finding indicates that the HEBT is a better candidate than the HBT for power devices     

Improved emitter transit time using AlGaAs-GaInP composite emitterin GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors

A new emitter structure based on composite graded AlGaAs-GaInP approach is described, which allows significant reduction of CBE and improved high-frequency performance. A theoretical study of the composite and conventional emitter HBTs is performed to prove the superiority of composite emitter HBTs using Monte Carlo simulation of their transport properties. The self-aligned HBTs fabricated in this study are grown by CBE with TBA/TBP precursors. The current gain cutoff frequency (f_T) was 62 GHz for the composite emitter design HBT, and 45 GHz for conventional emitter design HBT. The CBE achieved with the composite emitter designs was at least 3 times lower than that of conventional designs and does not show significant variation with collector current. This leads to enhanced f_T characteristics by 15% for composite emitter HBT designs and confirms the theoretical expectations     

On the short and long term degradation of GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors

This work deals with the short and long term effects of a current stress performed at room temperature on Carbon doped GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors. The investigation has been carried out by means of DC characterizations and low frequency noise (LFN) measurements in the 250 Hz–100 kHz frequency range. During the stress the devices were biased in the forward active region; a collector–emitter voltage of 7.7 V and a collector current density of 2.2×10⁴ A/cm² were imposed. The effect of the stress on the DC and LFN characteristics were compared and discussed in terms of two recombination mechanisms. The discussion points out that both extrinsic and intrinsic recombination processes have to be taken into account in order to justify the short and long term effects of the electrical stress.     

Base-collector leakage currents in InP/InGaAs double heterojunctionbipolar transistors

For InP/InGaAs HBT's, base-collector leakage current can restrict their operation to a narrow emitter-collector voltage range. We studied several factors that can degrade the leakage current: the base-collector junction design, the base mesa etching technique, and the base metallization process. A step-graded base-collector heterojunction offered the best results. A leakage free multiple step etching process, combining wet and dry etching, has been developed. Ti/Pt/Au is a suitable base metallization, provided that the platinum layer is not too thick, and that the contact annealing temperature is not too high. Finally, very low leakage current HBT's were fabricated     

High-speed, high-current-gain p-n-p InP/InGaAs heterojunctionbipolar transistors

p-n-p InP/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are reported for the first time. The transistors, grown by metal organic molecular beam epitaxy (MOMBE), exhibited maximum DC current gain values up to 420 for a base doping level of 4×10¹⁸ cm^-3 . Small-signal measurements on self-aligned transistors with 3-μm×8-μm emitter area indicated the unity gain cutoff frequency value of 10.5 GHz and the inferred maximum frequency of oscillation of 25 GHz. The results clearly demonstrate the feasibility of complementary integrated circuits in the InP material system     

Avalanche multiplication noise characteristics in thin GaAs p+-i-n+ diodes

Avalanche noise measurements have been performed on a range of homojunction GaAs p⁺-i-n⁺ and n⁺-i-p ⁺ diodes with “i” region widths, ω from 2.61 to 0.05 μm. The results show that for ω⩽1 μm the dependence of excess noise factor F on multiplication does not follow the well-established continuous noise theory of McIntyre [1966]. Instead, a decreasing noise factor is observed as ω decreases for a constant multiplication. This reduction in F occurs for both electron and hole initiated multiplication in the thinner ω structures even though the ionization coefficient ratio is close to unity. The dead-space, the minimum distance a carrier must travel to gain the ionization threshold energy, becomes increasingly important in these thinner structures and largely accounts for the reduction in noise     

Avalanche multiplication properties of GaAs calculated from spatially transient ionisation coefficients

In this paper the high field phenomenon of avalanche multiplication in a GaAs p-i-n infrared detector is studied using a Monte-Carlo simulation. The Lucky-Drift model of impact ionization is used to give the characteristic lengths for transport through the device. The transport is then modelled by generating motion consistent with the probability functions derived from the mean free paths. This produces a spatially transient ionization coefficient for each carrier and allows the realistic statistical simulation of avalanche multiplication. Properties such as mean gain, multiplication noise and the transient response to a photonic pulse have been calculated and explained for a length of i-GaAs, with an emphasis on short active region phenomena. The effect on the ionization coefficients of a periodic field change has been investigated. It has been found that the effective carrier deadspace is approx. 1.35 times the absolute deadspace. The transient current calculations indicate the narrow bandwidth of this type of device. The presence of a periodic field change, caused by periodic δ-doping, was found to increase both electron and hole ionization coefficients by different proportions.     

Thermal characterization of thermally-shunted heterojunctionbipolar transistors

Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs) are potentially useful in a number of microwave applications, but they are severely limited by a current distribution instability caused by electrothermal interaction and the use of a low thermal conductivity substrate. A novel thermal management technique called “thermal shunting” has been developed to reduce thermal resistance and junction temperature non-uniformity. Thermal resistance measurements for thermally-shunted devices are presented. Specific thermal resistance measurements as low as 2.6×10^-4°C-cm²/W (147°C/W at 0.1 W for a device with a 177 μm² emitter area) have been obtained. Thermal resistance values obtained for thermally-shunted HBTs are substantially lower than those reported for conventional HBTs     

自对准GaInP/GaAs HBT器件

利用发射极金属掩蔽进行内切腐蚀的方法研制成自对准InGaP/GaAs异质结双极晶体管 (HBT),其特征频率(ft)达到54GHz,最高振荡频率(fmax)达到71GHz,并且,这种方法工艺简单,成品率高.文中还对该结果进行了分析,提出了进一步提高频率特性的方法.     

自对准GaInP/GaAs HBT器件

利用发射极金属掩蔽进行内切腐蚀的方法研制成自对准InGaP/GaAs异质结双极晶体管 (HBT),其特征频率(ft)达到54GHz,最高振荡频率(fmax)达到71GHz,并且,这种方法工艺简单,成品率高.文中还对该结果进行了分析,提出了进一步提高频率特性的方法.