Trade-offs in RF Performance and Electrothermal Ruggedness of Multifinger SiGe Power Cells

Author

Spirito, M. ; De Paola, F.M. ; d´Alessandro, V. ; Buisman, K. ; Rinaldi, N.

Author_Institution

HiTeC Lab., Delft Univ. of Technol., Delf

fYear

2006

fDate

4-8 June 2006

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

In this contribution we analyze the trade-offs existing between the RF performances and the thermal ruggedness of SiGe power multifinger HBTs. Six structures with constant emitter area and different emitter geometry are considered. Small signal S-parameters as well as large signal load-pull measurements are performed to evaluate the effect of emitter geometry on the device RF performances. Moreover, the structures are analyzed through an in house developed electrothermal simulator in order to define the layout influence on the safe operating area (SOA). Finally, some guidelines are drawn to help the designer in trading electrical performances for thermal ruggedness

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; S-parameters; heterojunction bipolar transistors; power bipolar transistors; semiconductor device reliability; RF performance; SiGe; constant emitter area; electrothermal ruggedness; electrothermal simulator; emitter geometry; large signal load-pull measurement; power cells; power multifinger HBT; safe operating area; small signal S-parameter; Analytical models; Electrothermal effects; Geometry; Germanium silicon alloys; Performance analysis; Performance evaluation; RF signals; Radio frequency; Scattering parameters; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Semiconductor Devices and IC's, 2006. ISPSD 2006. IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Naples

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9714-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISPSD.2006.1666068

Filename

1666068