Photo effect based avalanche multiplication measurement in highly scaled SiGe HBTs

Author

Jun Pan ; Guofu Niu ; Jin Tang ; Joseph, A. ; Harame, D.L.

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng. Dept., Auburn Univ., AL, USA

fYear

2003

fDate

11-11 April 2003

Firstpage

14

Lastpage

17

Abstract

A new photo effect based technique for measuring the avalanche multiplication factor (M - 1) is proposed. The technique enables M - 1 measurement at high operating current densities required for high speed operation, where conventional techniques fail because of self-heating. Using the proposed technique, M - 1 was measured up to 24 mA//spl mu/m/sup 2/ on SiGe HBTs featuring 120 GHz peak f/sub T/. Implications for circuit applications are also discussed.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; avalanche breakdown; current density; heterojunction bipolar transistors; impact ionisation; microwave bipolar transistors; 120 GHz; HBTs; SiGe; avalanche multiplication measurement; breakdown voltage; high speed operation; impact ionization; operating current densities; photo effect based technique; self-heating; Circuits; Current density; Current measurement; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Measurement techniques; Microelectronics; Silicon germanium; Virtual colonoscopy; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems, 2003. Digest of Papers. 2003 Topical Meeting on

Conference_Location

Grainau, Germany

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7787-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SMIC.2003.1196657

Filename

1196657