A comparative study of the passivation films on AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction diodes and bipolar transistors

Author

Hwang, Hann-Ping ; Cheng, Yung-Shih ; Shieh, Jia-Lin ; Chyi, Jen-Inn

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Central Univ., Chung-Li, Taiwan

Volume

48

Issue

2

fYear

2001

fDate

2/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

185

Lastpage

189

Abstract

A series of Si-based thin films, including amorphous Si, SiC, as well as the conventional SiO_x and SiN_x, was investigated in terms of the electrical characteristics of GaAs/Al_0.3Ga_0.7As heterostructure diodes and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). All the films were found effective in reducing the leakage current and long term degradation. Less size-dependence of the current gain was found for the HBTs passivated by amorphous Si and SiC. In addition, the devices passivated by amorphous Si and SiC films exhibited better performance during high power operation. This is attributed to the high thermal conductivity of these two materials

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; amorphous semiconductors; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; leakage currents; passivation; power semiconductor devices; semiconductor diodes; silicon; silicon compounds; thermal conductivity; GaAs-Al_0.3Ga_0.7As; HBT; Si; Si-based thin films; SiC; SiN; SiN_x film; SiO; SiO_x film; amorphous Si film; amorphous SiC film; current gain; electrical characteristics; heterojunction bipolar transistors; heterojunction diodes; high power operation; leakage current; long term degradation; passivation films; thermal conductivity; Amorphous materials; Diodes; Electric variables; Gallium arsenide; Passivation; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon carbide; Silicon compounds; Thermal conductivity; Thin film transistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.902714

Filename

902714