Emitter ballasting resistor design for, and current handling capability of AlGaAs/GaAs power heterojunction bipolar transistors

A systematic investigation of the emitter ballasting resistor for power heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is presented. The current handling capability of power HBTs is found to improve with ballasting resistance. An equation for the optimal ballasting resistance is presented, where the effects of thermal conductivity of the substrate material and the temperature coefficient of the ballasting resistor are taken into account. Current levels of 400 to 800 mA/mm of emitter periphery at case temperatures of 25 to -80°C for power AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs have been obtained using an on-chip lightly doped GaAs emitter ballasting resistor. Device temperature has been measured using both an infrared microradiometer and temperature-sensitive electrical parameters. Steady-state and transient thermal modeling are also performed. Although the measured temperature is spatially nonuniform, the modeling results show that such nonuniformities would occur for a uniform current distribution, as would be expected for an HBT with emitter ballasting resistors