Comparative study on temperature-dependent characteristics of InPInGaAs single- and double-heterojunction bipolar transistors

Interesting temperature-dependent characteristics of InPInGaAs -based single-heterojunction bipolar transistor (SHBT) and double-heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) devices are compared and studied. Experimentally, both studied devices show wider collector current (IC) operation regions, with over 11 decades in magnitude of collector current (IC = 10-12 to 10-1 A). However, the studied DHBT exhibits improved breakdown characteristics [common-emitter breakdown voltage (BVCEO) =8.05 V and common-base breakdown voltage (BVCBO) =11.3 V] and low output conductance at high temperature. Moreover, the undesired current-blocking effect, switching, hysteresis phenomenon usually found in an InPInGaAs conventional DHBT are not observed in the DHBT device. As compared with the studied SHBT, the studied DHBT shows a lower multiplication factor and weaker temperature dependence. Therefore, it is known that, based on experimental results, the studied DHBT device provides the promise for low-voltage and low-power circuit applications.