Investigation of SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor over an Extreme Temperature Range

Dc, high frequency (hf) characteristics and noise of SiGe HBTs; were investigated in a wide ambient temperature (7) range from 4 K to 423 K. SiGe HBTs with low emitter concentration (LEC) and trapezoidal Ge base doping were found good candidates for cryogenic applications. Both hydrodynamic (HD) device simulation and compact model (CM) HICUM show good agreement with experimental data in the temperature range of 300 K-423 K. The collector current did not show any leakage related to electric field assisted tunneling via traps in the base. Rapid decrease of transit frequency (f(T)) with T is explained in terms of the carrier delay distribution. Noise figure (NFmin) analysis reveals that the main noise contributors are related to collector current fluctuations (shot-like noise) and thermal noise in the base at high T. Base current fluctuations related noise becomes of importance only at high injection. Simulated diffusion noise distribution shows that collector terminal electronic noise originates at the emitter-base (BE) junction but not in base-collector (BC) junction area.