Effect of hot-electron injection of high-frequency characteristics of abrupt In0.52(Ga1-xAlx)0.48 As/InGaAs HBT´s

The effect of hot-electron injection energy (E_i) into the base on the high-frequency characteristics of In_0/52(Ga_1-xAl_x)_0.48 As/InGaAs abrupt heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is investigated by changing the composition of the emitter. There exists an optimum E_i at which a maximum current gain cutoff frequency (ft) is obtained. Analysis of hot-electron transport in the base and collector by Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to understand the above phenomenon. The collector transit time (τ_c ) increases with E_i, because electrons with higher energy transfer from the Γ valley into the upper L and X valleys. At first, the base transit time (τ_b ) decreases with E_i at the low E_i region. However, τ_b does not decrease monotically with E_i, because of the nonparabolicity in the energy-band structure of InGaAs. Consequently, there exists a minimum in the sum of τ_b and τ_c , in other words a maximum f_t, at an intermediate value of E_i