Preventing instability damages in multiple finger heterojunction bipolar transistors by tunnel diode emitter design

Author

Shamir, N. ; Ritter, D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Technion-Israel Inst. of Technol., Haifa, Israel

Volume

50

Issue

3

fYear

2003

fDate

3/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

859

Lastpage

861

Abstract

We present a tunnel diode emitter structure capable of preventing instability damage in multiple finger high power heterojunction bipolar transistors. An Esaki diode pair vertically integrated to the wide bandgap emitter self-limits the finger current and prevents current runaway. We describe the principle of operation and demonstrate the electrical characteristics of a single finger in the proposed device.

Keywords

current distribution; heterojunction bipolar transistors; power bipolar transistors; semiconductor device reliability; thermal stability; tunnel diodes; Gummel plot; InP-GaInAs; NPN InP/GaInAs HBT; common emitter measurements; current runaway prevention; electrical characteristics; finger current; high power multiple finger bipolar transistors; instability damage; multiple finger heterojunction bipolar transistors; thermal instability; tunnel diode emitter design; uniform current distribution; vertically integrated Esaki diode pair; wide bandgap emitter; Current density; Degradation; Diodes; Fingers; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Impact ionization; Indium phosphide; Leakage current; Temperature; Tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2003.811389

Filename

1202647