High reliability InGaP/GaAs HBT (original) (raw)

Reliability investigation of implanted microwave InGaP/GaAs HBTs

Materials Science and Engineering: B, 2001

In this paper, we report the fabrication and characterisation of C-doped InGaP/GaAs microwave HBTs using a planar self-aligned technology based on O + /H + or O + /He + implant isolation schemes. We observed current gain variations with emitter/base geometries in the H + implanted HBTs while no such variation was observed in the He + implanted transistors. This latter phenomenon is characterised by a current gain increase in the smaller device and this was attributed to a decrease of the hole concentration in the base, caused by the formation of C H complexes in the C-doped GaAs base region. We therefore recommend the use of O + /He + implant scheme for the fabrication of reliable high performance C-doped base HBTs. : S 0 9 2 1 -5 1 0 7 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 6 5 4 -1

Development of High Breakdown Voltage InGaP/GaAs DHBTs

In this paper, we report the development of a high breakdown voltage InGaP/GaAs HBT process for low-to-mid power and high-voltage power amplifier operation. To achieve the high-breakdown InGaP HBT, two different collector designs and collector-etch processes were investigated. The first device process approach uses a thick GaAs collector with low ndoping. The process challenges and considerations of this long collector approach are briefly discussed. An alternative approach uses wide band gap InGaP material as part of the collector design. High breakdown voltage can be obtained from both material design approaches. However, to fully leverage the existing process modules of our high volume HBT production line and allow the re-use of our current HBT design rules and libraries, our high voltage HBT (HV-HBT) development efforts focus on HBTs with InGaP in the collector (either composite collector, CCHBT, or double heterojunctions, DHBTs). Using a slightly modified process, InGaP DHBT devices have been demonstrated with BV ceo and BV cbo values of 40 V and 56 V, respectively. A cut off frequency, f t , of 40 GHz has also been obtained at a current density of Jc=0.3 mA/µm 2 by using this process.

InGaP/GaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors

2015

A 4W super ruggedness InGaP/GaAs HBT for GSM power amplifier applications is presented. With improved epi-structure, layout and process, the device can be survived at 25:1 VSWR. To our knowledge, this is the highest ruggedness achieved for a 4W InGaP/GaAs HBT. In addition, the device shows good power performance with typical 36 dBm output power, 18 dB linear gain and 64% PAE at 900 MHz and 35 dBm output power, 15 dB linear gain and 60 % PAE at 1800 MHz, respectively. This device is excellent candidate for not only GSM but also DCS/PCS PA applications.

Experimental procedure for the evaluation of GaAs-based HBT's reliability

Microelectronics Journal, 2001

This work describes the implementation of an experimental procedure to evaluate the reliability of Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBT) on a GaAs substrate. It is based on the separation of aging test accelerating factors applied on two test vehicles: HBT and Transmission Line Model (TLM) structures associated with emitter, base and collector layers. To identify the physical origin of the degradation mechanism, analysis techniques are used: EDX, SEM and TEM observations for which a new sample preparation method has been worked out. Three different technological fabrication processes, are investigated: AlGaAs/GaAs double-mesa HBT, GaInP/GaAs self-aligned HBT and GaInP/GaAs fully planar HBT. These investigations have revealed two major failure mechanisms: the degradation of SiN±GaAs interface correlated with the increase of emitter-to-base leakage current of HBT submitted to combined bias and temperature stresses; the detachment of Ge/Mo/W emitter ohmic contact related to the base and collector current decrease for high level injection in forward regime.

Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of AlGaAs and InGaP heterojunction bipolar transistors

Journal of Crystal Growth, 2001

Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) are now beginning to be widely incorporated as power amplifiers, laser drivers, multiplexers, clock data recovery circuits, as well as transimpedance and broadband amplifiers in high performance millimeter wave circuits (MMICs). The increasing acceptance of this device is principally due to advancements in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), device processing, and circuit design technologies. Many of the DC electrical characteristics of large area devices can be directly correlated to the DC performance of small area RF devices. A precise understanding of the growth parameters and their relationship to device characteristics is critical for ensuring the high degree of reproducibility required for low cost high-yield volume manufacturing. Significant improvements in the understanding of the MOCVD growth process have been realized through the implementation of statistical process control on the key HBT device parameters. This tool has been successfully used to maintain the high quality of the device characteristics in high-volume production of 4 00 GaAs-based HBTs. There is a growing demand to migrate towards 6 00 diameter wafer size due to the potential cost reductions and increased volume production that can be realized. Preliminary results, indicating good heterostructure layer characteristics, demonstrate the feasibility of 6 00 InGaPbased HBT devices.

D.c. and microwave characteristics of In0.32Al0.68As/In0.33Ga0.67As heterojunction bipolar transistors grown on GaAs

Solid-State Electronics, 1999

The d.c. and microwave characteristics of graded and abrupt junction In 0.32 Al 0.68 As/In 0.33 Ga 0.67 As heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) grown on GaAs were investigated. A step-graded In x Ga 1 À x As buer was employed to eectively suppress the threading dislocations resulting from the lattice mismatch between In 0.33 Ga 0.67 As and GaAs. These devices exhibited a small turn-on voltage of collector current and a high collector±emitter breakdown voltage (BV CEO >9.5 V) for a 0.35 mm-thick collector, demonstrating excellent quality of the base±emitter and base± collector junctions. Less size-dependence on current gain was observed for these metamorphic HBTs even without the emitter ledge. The peak common-emitter current gain at a collector current density of 40 kA/cm 2 is 53 for the graded junction device with an emitter size of 2 Â 4 mm 2 and a base doping of 2 Â 10 19 cm À3. An F max of 56 GHz was measured for this device.

Development of High-Gain and High-Efficiency InGaP/GaAs HBT for High-Voltage Operation

A high-gain and high-efficiency InGaP/GaAs HBT for high voltage operation has been developed. Saturated Pout of > 33dBm, peak PAE of > 70% and linear gain of > 22dB have been obtained for a 2 watt device at 0.9GHz and 2GHz. The device shows high burnout voltage at 10V operation and very high reliability for infrastructure applications.

Investigations on Initial Beta Drift During Reliability Test for MOCVD Grown C-doped InGaP/GaAs HBTs

We report on investigations of the initial drift in DC current gain, or beta (b), during the early stages of reliability testing of MOCVD-grown carbon doped InGaP/GaAs HBTs. The b drift is compared for different HBT structures with varying burn-in percentages. Competing mechanisms are observed in which b can either increase or decrease during the initial stages of reliability testing. This b drift behavior is found to depend upon both the b burn-in percentage and the hydrogen concentration in the base. Hydrogenrelated defect mechanisms are found to adequately explain the observed b decreases, while non-hydrogen related recombination reduction mechanisms must be considered to account for the b increases observed during the initial stages of reliability testing.

Performance comparison of state-of-the-art heterojunction bipolar devices (HBT) based on AlGaAs/GaAs, Si/SiGe and InGaAs/InP

Microelectronics Journal, 2004

This paper presents a comprehensive comparison of three state-of-the-art heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs); the AlGaAs/GaAs HBT, the Si/SiGe HBT and the InGaAs/InP HBT. Our aim in this paper is to find the potentials and limitations of these devices and analyze them under common Figure of Merit (FOM) definitions as well as to make a meaningful comparison which is necessary for a technology choice especially in RF-circuit and system level applications such as power amplifier, low noise amplifier circuits and transceiver/receiver systems. Simulation of an HBT device with an HBT model instead of traditional BJT models is also presented for the AlGaAs/GaAs HBT. To the best of our knowledge, this work covers the most extensive FOM analysis for these devices such as I-V behavior, stability, power gain analysis, characteristic frequencies and minimum noise figure. DC and bias point simulations of the devices are performed using Agilent's ADS design tool and a comparison is given for a wide range of FOM specifications. Based on our literature survey and simulation results, we have concluded that GaAs based HBTs are suitable for high-power applications due to their high-breakdown voltages, SiGe based HBTs are promising for low noise applications due to their low noise figures and InP will be the choice if very high-data rates is of primary importance since InP based HBT transistors have superior material properties leading to Terahertz frequency operation. q

High-Frequency Characteristics of InGaP/GaAs Double Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor Epitaxially Grown on 200 mm Ge/Si Wafers

IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society

N-p-n InGaP/GaAs double heterojunction bipolar transistor has been successfully grown on a 200 mm Ge/Si wafer using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition with low defect density of 10 7 cm −2. Non-gold metals of Ni/Ge/Al and Ti/Al are used to form the ohmic contact for small pieces device fabrication. Both direct-current (dc) and high-frequency characteristics of the device were measured. The device with emitter area of 6×8 µm 2 shows a dc gain of 55 at a collector current of I c = 4 mA, with high collector-emitter breakdown voltage of ∼17 V. The high-frequency response with cutoff frequency (f T) of 23 GHz and maximum available frequency (f max) of 10 GHz can be achieved. These results demonstrate that InGaP/GaAs double heterojunction bipolar transistor grown on low defect density Ge/Si wafer has the potential for realizing III-V CMOS integrated platform for high-frequency applications.