Enhancing the Speed of SiGe HBTs Using fT-Doubler Techniques

Author

Yuan, Jiahui ; Cressler, John D.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA

fYear

2008

fDate

23-25 Jan. 2008

Firstpage

50

Lastpage

53

Abstract

A peak f_T of 325 GHz is achieved, for the first time, in a 130 nm, 200 GHz, 3^rd-generation SiGe HBT technology at 300 K, by utilizing f_T-doubler techniques. This speed enhancement is equivalent to gaining an additional generational node (from 3^rd to 4^th), with no underlying change to the transistor profile or lithography. The f_T-doubler can be treated as a single transistor unit cell during circuit design, which is verified by the investigation of its small-signal equivalent circuit. Reduced C_pi is demonstrated to be the root origin of the f_T-enhancement. The impact of emitter geometry on performance is investigated. A record f_T of 438 GHz is achieved at 93 K.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; equivalent circuits; frequency multipliers; heterojunction bipolar transistors; HBT; SiGe; f_T doubler techniques; frequency 200 GHz; frequency 325 GHz; frequency 438 GHz; generational node; size 130 nm; speed enhancement; temperature 300 K; temperature 93 K; Capacitance; Circuit synthesis; Cryogenics; Drives; Equivalent circuits; Geometry; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Silicon germanium; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems, 2008. SiRF 2008. IEEE Topical Meeting on

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1855-8

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1856-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SMIC.2008.19

Filename

4446253