A study of frequency response in silicon heterojunction bipolartransistors with amorphous silicon emitters

A detailed physical model of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is incorporated into a two-dimensional device simulator to examine the frequency response limits of silicon heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) with a-Si:H emitters. The cutoff frequency is severely limited by the transit time in the emitter space charge region, due to the low electron drift mobility in a-Si:H, to 98 MHz which compares poorly with the 37 GHz obtained for a silicon homojunction bipolar transistor with the same device structure. The effects of the amorphous heteroemitter material parameters (doping, electron drift mobility, defect density and interface state density) on frequency response are then examined to find the requirements for an amorphous heteroemitter material such that the HBT has better frequency response than the equivalent homojunction bipolar transistor, We find that an electron drift mobility of at least 100 cm² V^-1 s^-1 is required in the amorphous heteroemitter and at a heteroemitter drift mobility of 350 cm ² V^-1 s^-1 and heteroemitter doping of 5×10¹⁷ cm^-3, a maximum cutoff frequency of 52 GHz can be expected     

Si/a-Si:H heterojunction microwave bipolar transistors with cut-offfrequencies ft above 5 GHz

The fabrication of a silicon heterojunction microwave bipolar transistor with an n⁺ a-Si:H emitter is discussed, and experimental results are given. The device provides a base sheet resistance of 2 kΩ/□ a base width 0.1 μm, a maximum current gain of 21 (V_CE=6 V, I_c=15 mA), and an emitter Gummel number G _E of about 1.4×10¹⁴ Scm^-4. From the measured S parameters, a cutoff frequency f_t of 5.5 GHz and maximum oscillating frequency f_max of 7.5 GHz at V_CE=10 V, I_c=10 mA are obtained     

Effect of SiNx Gate Dielectric Deposition Power and Temperature on a-Si:H TFT Stability

The stability of thin-film transistors (TFTs) of hydrogenated amorphous-silicon (a-Si:H) against gate-bias stress is improved by raising the deposition power and temperature of the silicon nitride gate dielectric. We studied the effects of power density between 22 and 110 mW/cm² and temperature between 150degC and 300degC . The time needed to shift the threshold voltage by 2 V varies by a factor of 12 between low power and low temperature, and high power and high temperature. These results highlight the importance of fabricating a-Si:H TFTs on flexible plastic with the SiN_x gate dielectric deposited at the highest possible power and temperature.     

低电压高效率非晶硅发射极异质结UHF功率晶体管

本文报道了利用重掺杂氢化非晶硅作宽禁带发射极材料的低电压硅异质结UHF功率晶体管的实验结果.制备的器件在9伏电压、工作频率470MHz下,输出连续波功率4W,功率增益8.2dB,集电极效率72％.在迄今有关非晶硅发射极HBT的报道中。这是首次详细报道可工作于UHF频率的低电压非晶硅发射极异质结功率晶体管.文中还讨论了这种异质结构的低压功率器件的设计和制备应考虑的一些问题,并提出一些解决办法.     

A heterojunction bipolar transistor with a thin α-Si emitter

In this paper, a modified silicon heterojunction bipolar transistor is proposed and demonstrated. The structure uses a very thin n⁺ amorphous silicon layer as the emitter to enhance the emitter injection efficiency and reduce the emitter resistance as well as improve the frequency response of the device     

Stability of nc-Si:H TFTs With Silicon Nitride Gate Dielectric

We report the fabrication and characterization of bottom-gate and top-gate nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with amorphous-silicon nitride (a-SiN_x:H) as the gate dielectric. The devices were fabricated using standard 13.56-MHz plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at 240 degC. Here, the same 80-nm nc-Si:H channel, 300-nm a-SiN_x:H gate dielectric, and 60-nm n⁺ nc-Si:H ohmic contact layers were used in both TFT structures. We analyzed the effects of gate configuration on TFT performance and, in particular, the electrical stability. The stability tests were carried out at a gate bias stress in the range from 20 to 40 V. The nc-Si:H TFTs demonstrated much better threshold-voltage (V_T ) stability compared with the amorphous-silicon (a-Si:H) counterparts, offering great promise for applications in active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays     

High frequency performance of SiC heterojunction bipolartransistors

A compact heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) model was employed to simulate the high frequency and high power performances of SiC-based bipolar transistors. Potential 6H-SiC/3C-SiC heterojunction bipolar transistors (6H/3C-HBT's) at case temperatures of 27°C (300 K) through 600°C (873 K) were investigated. The high frequency and high power performance was compared to AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's. As expected, the ohmic contact resistance limits the high frequency performance of the SiC HBT. At the present time, it is only possible to reliably produce 1×10^-4 Ω-cm² contact resistances on SiC, so an f_T of 4.4 GHz and an f_max of 3.2 GHz are the highest realistic values. However, assuming an incredibly low 1×10^-6 Ω-cm² contact resistance for the emitter, base, and collector terminals, an f_T of 31.1 GHz and an f_max of 12.7 GHz can be obtained for a 6H/3C-SiC HBT     

Simulation study of the DC and AC characteristics of an a-Si:H(n)/GaAs(p)/GaAs(n) heterojunction bipolar transistor

This paper presents the results of a simulation study focused on the evaluation of the fundamental DC and high-frequency characteristics of a GaAs-based heterojunction bipolar transistor employing a wide gap emitter made of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). The role of the fundamental geometric design parameters on the device performance is analysed, showing in particular that the emitter thickness has a strong impact on the DC current gain, while the base thickness weakly affects the cut-off frequency. The role of the electronic properties of the thin film amorphous emitter is also discussed, leading to the conclusion that the device AC characteristics are in fact principally limited by the poor carrier mobility typical of a-Si:H. However, a DC current gain of 4000 and a cut-off frequency close to 10 GHz can be predicted for an optimised device if standard values for the electronic parameters of the materials are assumed.     

Improvement of Hydrogenated Amorphous-Silicon TFT Performances With Low-$k$Siloxane-Based Hydrogen Silsesquioxane (HSQ) Passivation Layer

A low-dielectric-constant (low-k)-material siloxane-based hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) is investigated as a passivation layer in bottom-gate hydrogenated amorphous-silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si : H TFTs). The low-k HSQ film passivated on TFT promotes the brightness and aperture ratio of TFT liquid-crystal display due to its high light transmittance and good planarization. In addition, the performance of a-Si : H TFT with HSQ passivation has been improved, compared to a conventional silicon nitride (SiN_x)-passivated TFT because the hydrogen bonds of HSQ assist the hydrogen incorporation to eliminate the density of states between the back channel and passivation layer. Experimental results exhibit an improved field-effect mobility of 0.57 cm²/Vmiddots and a subthreshold swing of 0.68 V     

An amorphous SiC:H emitter heterojunction bipolar transistor

After confirming the successful application of the amorphous SiC:H(a-SiC:H)/crystalline Si(c-Si) heterostructure in a solar cell and considering its prospective application in Bi-CMOS devices, an attempt has been made to apply the same in the fabrication of a heterojunction bipolar transistor. A p-n-p heterojunction bipolar transistor with a wide band-gap boron-doped amorphous SiC:H emitter and crystalline Si (base, collector) has been realized and is reported here for the first time. Good device performance has been observed at the a-SiC:H deposition temperature of 450°C. Preliminary results gave a current gain,h_{FE(max)}) of 50 at a current density of approximately 2.4 A/cm²(base dose 2 × 10¹²/cm², width ≃ 0.4 µm). Temperature dependence of the transistorh_{FE}-I_{C}characteristics was also studied.     

Simulation analysis of the DC current gain in an n-p-n a-Si:H/SiGe/Si heterojunction bipolar transistor

This paper presents the results of a simulation study focused on the evaluation of the DC characteristics of an n-p-n SiGe-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) performing an extremely thin n⁺ hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) emitter. The a-Si:H(n)/SiGe(p) structure exhibits an energy gap difference of approximately 0.8 eV mostly located at the valence band side and this results in an optimal configuration for the emitter/base junction to improve the emitter injection efficiency and thus the device performance.Considering a 20% Ge uniform concentration profile in the base region, simulations indicate that the DC characteristics of an a-Si:H/SiGe HBT are strictly dependent on two essential geometrical parameters, namely the emitter width and the base width. In particular, the emitter thickness degrades device characteristics in terms of current handling capabilities whereas higher current gains are obtained for progressively thinner base regions. A DC current gain exceeding 9000 can be predicted for an optimized device with a thin emitter and a 10 nm-thick, doped base.     

Amorphous-silicon thin-film transistors with very high field-effectmobility

The fabrication and performance of hydrogenated amorphous-silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with field-effect mobilities of 5.1 cm²/V-s are discussed. This is the highest field-effect mobility of this type of TFT reported to date. The device shows an on/off current ratio exceeding 10⁵ and a subthreshold swing of 0.5 V/decade     

Performance of bifacial HIT solar cells on n-type silicon substrates

The performance of amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) /crystalline silicon(c-Si) heterojunction is studied,and the effects of the emitter layer thickness,doping concentration,intrinsic layer thickness,back heavily-doped n layer,interface state and band offset on the optical and electrical performance of bifacial heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer(HIT) solar cells on ntype silicon substrates are discussed.It is found that the HIT solar cells on n-type substrates can obtain a higher conversion efficiency than th...     

Inverse staggered poly-Si and amorphous Si double structure TFT'sfor LCD panels with peripheral driver circuits integration

Inverse staggered polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) double structure thin-film transistors (TFT's) are fabricated based on the conventional a-Si:H TFT process on a single glass substrate. After depositing a thin (20 nm) a-Si:H using the plasma CVD technique at 300°C, Ar⁺ and XeCl (300 mJ/cm²) lasers are irradiated successively, and then a thick a-Si:H (200 nm) and n⁺ Si layers are deposited again. The field effect mobilities of 10 and 0.5 cm ²/V·s are obtained for the laser annealed poly-Si and the a-Si:H (without annealing) TFT's, respectively     

Planarized copper gate hydrogenated amorphous-silicon thin-filmtransistors for AM-LCDs

We report the first fabrication of inverted-staggered back-channel-etch hydrogenated amorphous-silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a planarized Cu gate electrode. The Cu gate-planarized (GP) a-Si:H TFTs, incorporating benzocyclobutene and a-SiN_x:H as a double-layer gate insulator, had a field-effect mobility of 0.75 cm²/V-s, a threshold voltage of 4.92 V, and a subthreshold swing (S) of 0.48 V/dec. These results demonstrate that the GP-TFTs can have an electrical performance comparable with the conventional TFTs without gate planarization. Thus, the gate planarization technology is suitable for application in large-area and high-resolution active-matrix liquid-crystal displays     

Extremely high peak specific transconductance AlGaAs/GaAsheterojunction bipolar transistors

Self-aligned AlGaAs/GAs heterojunction bipolar transistors with peak specific transconductances as high as 25 mS/μm² of emitter area are discussed. These are the highest specific transconductances ever reported for a bipolar transistor. These devices, which contain no indium in the emitter, display specific parasitic emitter resistances of less than 1×10^-7 Ω-cm². This low parasitic resistance is attributed to an improved n-type contact technology, in which a molybdenum diffusion barrier and a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition SiO₂ overlayer are used to achieve low specific contact resistivities     

Dynamic characterisation of Si/SiGe power HBTs

Si/SiGe power heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) grown by MBE were dynamically characterised in the common-base configuration. At an emitter current density of 1.1×10⁵ A/cm², a maximum frequency of oscillation of 49 GHz was observed. At 10 GHz a maximum unilateral gain of 14 dB is available, and a CW output power of 1.3 W/mm for a device with 10 parallel emitter-fingers of 1×10 μm² each was predicted, from CW measurements     

Low-Temperature Passivation of Amorphous-Silicon Thin-Film Transistors With Supercritical Fluids

In this letter, supercritical CO₂ (SCCO₂) fluids technology is employed for the first time to effectively passivate the defect states in hydrogenated amorphous-silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si:H TFTs) at low temperature (150degC ). With the high transport and diffusion properties of fluids, it is proposed to act as a transporter in delivering the molecules into the amorphous-silicon film and repairing defect states by the molecules. In addition, the propyl alcohol is used as the surfactant between nonpolar-SCCO₂ fluids and polar-H₂O molecules for mingling H₂O molecules uniformly with the SCCO₂ fluids. After the treatment of SCCO₂ fluids mixed with water and propyl alcohol, the a-Si:H TFT exhibited superior transfer characteristics and lower threshold voltage. The improvement in electrical characteristics could be verified by the significant reduction of density of states in the mobility gap of amorphous-silicon.     

1 W Ku-band AlGaAs/GaAs power HBT's with 72% peak power-addedefficiency

High power and high-efficiency multi-finger heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) have been successfully realized at Ku-band by using an optimum emitter ballasting resistor and a plated heat sink (PHS) structure. Output power of 1 W with power-added efficiency (PAE) of 72% at 12 GHz has been achieved from a 10-finger HBT with the total emitter size of 300 μm². 72% PAE with the output power density of 5.0 W/mm is the best performance ever reported for solid-state power devices with output powers more than 1 W at Ku-band     

High field effect mobility deuterated amorphous silicon thin-filmtransistors based on the substitution of hydrogen with deuterium

The characteristics of amorphous silicon hydrogen and deuterium thin-film transistors (a-Si:H/a-Si:D TFT) were studied. The deuterated and hydrogenated amorphous silicon channels were prepared by first annealing the as-deposited a-Si:H layer at 550°C in N₂ environment to expel all the hydrogen atoms out of the films, then the D ₂ or H₂ plasma were applied to treat the amorphous silicon layers. The field effect mobility of the conventional hydrogen TFT is usually smaller than 1 cm²/V-s. It was found that substitution of hydrogen with deuterium improved the field effect mobility of the TFT. The maximum field effect mobility of a-Si:D TFT obtained from the saturation region was 1.77 cm²/V-s