Effect of emitter-base spacing on the current gain of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors

Author

Lee, Won-Seong ; Ueda, Daisuke ; Ma, Tony ; Pao, Yi-ching ; Harris, J.S.

Author_Institution

Solid State Electron. Lab., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

Volume

10

Issue

5

fYear

1989

fDate

5/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

200

Lastpage

202

Abstract

An investigation of the effect of surface recombination and emitter-base-contact spacing on the DC current-gain of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) using thin AlGaAs emitter structures is discussed. The selectively-etched, thin-AlGaAs-emitter layer has been used to prevent an exposed extrinsic base region, which has previously limited current gain because of high surface recombination. It is found that a factor of approximately 50 improvement in the current gain can be achieved by proper surface passivation and emitter-base-contact spacing.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; amplification; electron-hole recombination; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; passivation; AlGaAs-GaAs; current gain; emitter-base spacing; heterojunction bipolar transistors; selective etching; surface passivation; surface recombination; thin AlGaAs emitter structures; Digital circuits; Etching; Fabrication; Gallium arsenide; Geometry; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Indium gallium arsenide; Laboratories; Passivation; Spontaneous emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.31720

Filename

31720