Title :
Low 1/f noise characteristics of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor with electrically abrupt emitter-base junction
Author :
Shin, Jin-Hi ; Lee, Joonwoo ; Chung, Yujin ; Ihn, Byoung-Uk ; Kim, Bumman
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. & Electr. Eng., Pohang Inst. of Sci. & Technol., South Korea
Abstract :
It is shown that the use of an electrically abrupt emitter-base junction considerably reduces the 1/f noise of self-aligned AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). Although this device does not have depleted AlGaAs ledge passivation layer, the low-frequency noise spectra show a very low 1/f noise corner frequency of less than 10 kHz, which is much lower than previously reported value of about 100 kHz from conventional passivated or unpassivated AlGaAs/GaAs HBT´s. Except for a residual generation-recombination (g-r) noise component, the noise power is comparable to that of Si BJT. It is also found that the low-frequency noise power of the AlGaAs/GaAs HBT is proportional to the extrinsic GaAs base surface recombination current square. Unlike the other HBT´s reported, the noise sources associated with interface state and emitter-base (E-B) space charge region recombination are not significant for our device.
Keywords :
1/f noise; III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; semiconductor device noise; surface recombination; 1/f noise characteristics; AlGaAs-GaAs; electrically abrupt emitter-base junction; generation-recombination noise; heterojunction bipolar transistor; low-frequency noise spectra; noise power; residual g-r noise component; self-aligned HBT; Frequency; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Interface states; Low-frequency noise; Noise generators; Noise reduction; Passivation; Power generation; Space charge;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE