A Study on the Current Gain Variation with the Emitter Size in AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs

AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs의 에미터 크기에 따른 전류 이득 변화에 관한 연구

AlGaAs/GaAs Heterojunotion Bipolar Transistors (HBTs) with various emitter areas were fabricated and the device size dependence on the current gain was examined. With the different emitter areas, the passivated devices having the same peripheral length were fabricated and measured. The measured base current density in the Gummel plots shows an ideality factor of nearly 2. It is found that as the emitter area becomes small, the base current density with the ideality factor of 2 increases linearly, and as the emitter perimeter/area ratio becomes large, the surface recombination current density component increases. The current gain performance in AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs is mainly determined by either the larger emitter area or the smaller ratio of the emitter perimeter to the emitter area. These results will be compared with experimental works for GaInP/GaAs HBTs