SiGe power HBT´s for low-voltage, high-performance RF applications

Author

Burghartz, J.N. ; Plouchart, J.-O. ; Jenkins, K.A. ; Webster, C.S. ; Soyuer, M.

Author_Institution

IBM Thomas J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

Volume

19

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

4/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

103

Lastpage

105

Abstract

Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) power heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT´s) are fabricated by using two or ten device unit cells with an emitter area of 5×0.5×16.5 μm² each. The large power transistor features 1 W RF output power at 3-dB gain compression, 3.5 V bias, and 2.4 GHz with a maximum power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 48% for class A/B operation. At a supply voltage of 1.5 V, the transistor delivers a 3-dB RF output power of 150 mW with a PAE of 47%. It is shown that a high collector doping level is advantageous for low-voltage operation. Further, by using special bias sense ports, the interconnect losses are found to degrade the device performance to a considerable degree.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; UHF bipolar transistors; heterojunction bipolar transistors; power bipolar transistors; semiconductor materials; 1.5 V; 150 mW to 1 W; 2.4 GHz; 3.5 V; 47 to 48 percent; SiGe; SiGe power HBT; bias sense ports; class A/B operation; high collector doping level; high-performance RF applications; interconnect losses; low-voltage operation; power heterojunction bipolar transistors; Degradation; Doping; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Performance loss; Power generation; Power transistors; Radio frequency; Silicon germanium; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.663528

Filename

663528