Breakdown-speed considerations in InP/InGaAs single- and double-heterostructure bipolar transistors

Author

Chau, Hin-Fai ; Pavlidis, Dimitris ; Hu, Juntao ; Tomizawa, Kazutaka

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Volume

40

Issue

1

fYear

1993

fDate

1/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2

Lastpage

8

Abstract

The breakdown and speed characteristics of InP/InGaAs single and double HBTs are presented. Temperature-dependent two- and three-terminal measurements suggest that avalanche impact ionization is the dominant breakdown mechanism in InGaAs collector HBTs. Monte Carlo techniques and 1D drift-diffusion modeling are used for speed and breakdown simulation, respectively. Special doping profiles are evaluated for improving the breakdown-speed characteristics of single HBTs (SHBTs) with conventional uniformly doped InGaAs collectors. Double HBTs (DHBTs) outperform all SHBTs in terms of speed-breakdown tradeoffs as long as they use graded base-collector junctions or they operate under sufficiently high collector-emitter voltage conditions. A cutoff frequency of 200 GHz was found to be feasible with graded DHBTs, and breakdown voltages up to 4.6 V were evaluated with a 3000-Å-thick collector. Nongraded DHBTs can be optimized to perform better in terms of speed-breakdown tradeoffs provided that a high collector doping is used

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Monte Carlo methods; doping profiles; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; impact ionisation; indium compounds; semiconductor device models; 1D drift-diffusion modeling; 200 GHz; 3000 Å; 4.6 V; DHBTs; HBTs; InP-InGaAs; Monte Carlo techniques; SHBTs; avalanche impact ionization; breakdown-speed characteristics; collector-emitter voltage; cutoff frequency; doping profiles; double-heterostructure bipolar transistors; graded base-collector junctions; speed-breakdown tradeoffs; three-terminal measurements; two-terminal measurements; Avalanche breakdown; Doping profiles; Double heterojunction bipolar transistors; Electric breakdown; Impact ionization; Indium gallium arsenide; Indium phosphide; Monte Carlo methods; Semiconductor process modeling; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.249416

Filename

249416