Influence of base thickness on collector breakdown in abrupt AlInAs/InGaAs heterostructure bipolar transistors

Author

Jalali, Bahram ; Chen, Young-Kai ; Nottenburg, Richard N. ; Sivco, D. ; Humphrey, D.A. ; Cho, Alfred Y.

Author_Institution

AT&T Bell Lab., Murray Hill, NJ, USA

Volume

11

Issue

9

fYear

1990

Firstpage

400

Lastpage

402

Abstract

The avalanche process in the collector of abrupt Al/sub 0.48/In/sub 0.52/As-In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As heterostructure bipolar transistors (HBTs) is reported. It is reported that the collector multiplication constant decreases monotonically with increasing base thickness. When the base thickness is less than the mean-free path for energy relaxation in the base, the avalanche process in the collector is enhanced by high-energy injection from the emitter. On the other hand, no such dependence is observed for long-base transistors with equilibrium base transport. These effects are expected as the emitter injection energy of 0.48 eV is appreciable compared to the impact ionization threshold of 0.83 eV in the InGaAs collector.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; impact ionisation; indium compounds; 0.48 eV; 0.83 eV; Al/sub 0.48/In/sub 0.52/As-In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As; InGaAs collector; abrupt HBTs; avalanche process; base thickness; collector breakdown; collector multiplication constant; emitter injection energy; equilibrium base transport; heterostructure bipolar transistors; high-energy injection; impact ionization threshold; long-base transistors; mean-free path; semiconductors; Artificial intelligence; Bipolar transistors; Doping; Electric breakdown; Electrons; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Impact ionization; Indium gallium arsenide; Photonic band gap; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.62969

Filename

62969