Thermal coupling in 2-finger heterojunction bipolar transistors

We have previously analyzed the collapse phenomenon in heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) when the mutual couplings among the transistor fingers are negligible. In this investigation, we derive the collapse loci equations in 2-finger HBT's in the presence of thermal coupling. It is found that the collapse loci equations are closely linked to a thermal instability condition best determined from the transistor regression characteristics. Unlike the previous derivation assuming zero thermal coupling, the collapse loci equations derived here are different depending on whether the HBT is driven by constant base current or constant base voltage bias