Tradeoff between 1/f noise and microwave performance in AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors

Author

Costa, Damian ; Tutt, Marcel N. ; Khatibzadeh, Ali ; Pavlidis, Dimitris

Author_Institution

Corp. R&D Labs., Texas Instrum. Inc., Dallas, TX, USA

Volume

41

Issue

8

fYear

1994

fDate

8/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1347

Lastpage

1350

Abstract

The 1/f noise characteristics and microwave gain of AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT´s) have been investigated as a function of surface passivation ledge length. These measurements clearly demonstrate that the ledge length imposes a tradeoff between the 1/f noise and microwave power gain performance. Compared to a conventional unpassivated self-aligned HBT, HBT´s with 0.4 and 1.1 μm ledge lengths improve the equivalent input base noise current spectral density at 100 Hz by as much as 2 dB and 6.5 dB, respectively; while degrading the maximum available gain at 18 GHz by 0.3 dB and 2.4 dB, respectively

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; passivation; random noise; semiconductor device noise; solid-state microwave devices; 0.4 micron; 1.1 micron; 1/f noise; 100 Hz; 18 GHz; AlGaAs-GaAs; AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors; equivalent input base noise current spectral density; microwave power gain; surface passivation ledge length; Degradation; Gain measurement; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Length measurement; Microwave measurements; Noise measurement; Passivation; Performance gain; Power measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.297728

Filename

297728