Kavli Affiliate: Austin J. Minnich
| First 5 Authors: Nachiket R. Naik, Bekari Gabritchidze, Jacob Kooi, Kieran A. Cleary, Austin J. Minnich
| Summary:
The anomalous current-voltage characteristics of cryogenic SiGe
heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) have been a topic of investigation
for many years. Proposed explanations include quasiballistic transport of
electrons across the base or tunneling from the emitter to the collector, but
inconsistencies exist with these hypotheses. Although similar behavior occurs
in Schottky junctions and has been attributed to spatial inhomogeneities in the
base-emitter junction potential, this explanation has not been considered for
SiGe HBTs. Here, we experimentally investigate this hypothesis by
characterizing the base-emitter junction ideality factor and built-in potential
of a SiGe HBT versus temperature using a cryogenic probe station. The
temperature-dependence of the ideality factor and the relation between the
built-in potential as measured by capacitance-voltage and current-voltage
characteristics are in good qualitative agreement with the predictions of a
theory of electrical transport across a junction with a Gaussian distribution
of potential barrier heights. These observations support the origin of
cryogenic electrical anomalies in SiGe HBTs as arising from lateral
inhomogeneities in the base-emitter junction potential. This work helps to
identify the physical mechanisms limiting the cryogenic microwave noise
performance of SiGe HBTs.
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