Effectiveness of silicon nitride passivation in III-V based heterojunction bipolar transistors

Abstract

The quality of Si₃N₄ thin film passivation is of importance for the reliability of III-V based Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs). Both theoretical and experimental studies have been conducted in order to minimize base leakage currents as a major source of degradation. In the present work we investigate the effectiveness of the passivation of devices before and after electrothermal stress aging by the means of two-dimensional numerical simulations. For that purpose proper electrical and thermal models were implemented in our simulator MINIMOS-NT allowing simulation of silicon nitride as a wide bandgap semiconductor material.

Key Words:

• Nitride passivation
• Heterojunction bipolar transistors
• Two-dimensional simulation
• Device reliability
• Thermoelectrical stress aging