10.00 10.

20 -
TUB 1-5

100 GHz TRANSFERRED-SUBSTRATE

SCHOTTKY-COLLECTOR HETEROJUNCTION
BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR
U. Bhattacharya, M. J. Mondry, G. Hurtz, J. Guthrie, M. J. W. Rodwell
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
805-893-8044, 805-893-3262 FAX

T. Liu, C. Nguyen, D. Rensch

Hughes Research Labs, Malibu, CA 90265, USA

Abstract
We report greatly improved transferred- collector

substrate Schottky collector HBTs with I

'
I.,

fmaz of 100 GHz and f7 of 55 GHz. O p 'w, colledof

timized devices should obtain fmaz in ex-

cess of 500 GHz.
I. Introduction
Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) have
high transconductance and extremely repro-
ducible DC parameters. These attributes make
HBTs the device of choice for high-speed pre-
cision analog and mixed analog-digital circuits.
It is remarkable that power- gain cutoff frequen-
cies fmax of normal HBTs do not significantly in-
-
crease when the emitter dimensions are reduced
below 2 pm. Consequently, HBTs are not
normally fabricated with deep submicron dimen-
sions.
The Schottky-collector heterojunction bipolar
transistor (SCHBT) is a modified HBT where the
subcollector is replaced by a direct Schottky con-
tact to the collector layer (fig. 1 (a)). A sub-
strate transfer process step is required. Litho-
graphically defined narrow collectors and emit-
ters aligned to each other are thus feasible. The
use of a Schottky collector contact permits scal-
ing the collector contact to deep submicron di-
mensions. This scaling reduces ?&C&,increasing
fma,. SCHBTs were first demonstrated in [I].
(a) (b)
IlIlU! Emitter fBB base
Emitter & collector Ohmics I base Ohmics
0 undoped collector depletion layer
fSSchottky
! collector contact & interconnect metals
N+ subcollector
Figure 1: Layer structures and band diagrams
comparing an SCHBT (a) to an HBT (b).
11. SCHBT scaling
While the current-gain cutoff frequency f T =
1/27r(Tb + ) high current densities depends
T ~ at
only on the base and collector transit times Tb
.-.
and the collector- base capacitance C c b . T b is the
base thickness, Tc the collector depletion layer
thickness, and vsat the electron velocity. Regard-
less of the value of fT, transistors cannot provide
power gain above fmax.
In the normal HBT (fig. l(b)) the collector
junction width W, is much larger than the emit-
ter stripe width W e ,increasing c&and decreas-
ing fmax. The collector-base capacitance C c b 0:
EW,/T, is proportional to the collector width W ,
but is independent of the emitter width. The
base resistance, r b b = d-121 + W,Pbs/l21is
dominated by the base ohmic contact resistance
term (4-/21) and is consequently indepen-
dent of the emitter width for We <- 2pm. Pbc is
the specific base contact resistivity, 1 the emitter
stripe length, We the emitter width, Pbs = pb/Tb Bg- 1" _c_

the base sheet resistivity, and P b the base bulk re- -

0

5
Normal HBT, W c=7pm

sistivity. Since f7 and TbbCcbare independent of I ,

504 . . . . , . . . . , . . . . , . . . .
the emitter width, so is fmax. For emitter stripe
-
widths below 2 pm, fmax does not improve.
0 0.5 1 1.5
Emitter and collector stripe width, p n
2

In contrast, transferred substrate SCHBTs

Figure 2: Calculated fmax of HBTs and SCHBTs
(fig. l(a)) have W , = We. This results in a
versus emitter width We for AlInAs/GaInAs de-
smaller Ccb and a significant increase in fmax.
vices with T, = 2700 , Tb = 800 A , and mate-
Inclusive of fringing fields, Ccb N d(W,+ T,)/T,.
rial parameters taken from [2]
Ccb, proportional to the collector width, is pro-
portional to the emitter width since the widths
are now equal. The base resistance is still inde-
pendent of We, and hence TbbCcb cx (Wc+ T,).
Consequently, with T, and Tb fixed, fmax cx
(W, + T,)p1/2.Bandwidth increases as the in- GalnAs 3000A Collector
verse square root of the process minimum feature Si doped 1x l 0%m3
size.
The same improvement in bandwidth with re- GalnAs 500A Base
Be doped 5x1Oi9/cm3
duced collector and emitter dimensions would be
obtained with an HBT fabricated in a substrate
transfer process such that the emitter and col- GalnAs l O O A
Setback
Be doped 2x10%m3
lector have equal widths. The advantage of the
Schottky collector is its ease in scaling to deep Grading over 300A
submicron dimensions. The Schottky collector Graded
also eliminates the collector contact resistance Top 67A Heterojunction
Be doped 2x101'/cm3
r,, but r, has significant impact 0x1 HBT band-
width only when r,C,b - r,, e.g. for collector
space-charge-thicknesses T, below 1000 A . In In-
Remaining 233A
Si doped 8x1O"/cm3
9 periods

AlAs/InGaAs SCHBTs the 0.5 eV walence-band AllnAs 1050A

barrier results in a low leakage Schottky contact Emitter
Si doped 8x1O17/cm3
to the InGaAs collector depletion layer.
Fig. 2 compares calculated HBT and trans- 4llnAs 350A
ferred substrate SCHBT cutoff frequencies ver- Si doped 1x i 01'/cm3
sus We for InAlAs/InGaAs devices, using mea-
sured HBT parameters (T, : 2700 A, Tb = 800 GalnAs l O 0 O A
+
A, r b rc = 1.32 ps, Pbs = 500 R/square, Si doped 1x l Oi9/cm3
pbc = 700 - p m 2 ) taken from [2]. Due to ad-
vancement in AlInAs/GaInAs HBT technology AllnAs 2500A
the state-of- the-art HBTs today are superior to undoped
the HBTs reported in [2]. We are using [2] as
the basis of our calculations to generate the pro- SI InP
jections of fig. 2 because a comprehensive set
of material and transit time data has been re-
ported in [2]. Improvements in HBT technol- Figure 3: Layer structure of the material used for
ogy has taken place mainly due to better ma- SCHBT fabrication.
terial growth, device design in terms of transit
times and breakdown, base contact technology

146
and techniques to reduce collector base capaci-
tance. While SCHBTs only address the last prob- support collector contact
lem, it is possible t o incorporate the other ad- I /
vancements of HBT technology in SCHBT fabri-
cation to obtain better values of fmaz than what
is projected in fig. 2.
There are limits t o emitter and collector scal-
ing. As the emitter width is reduced, its
periphery-area ratio increases and the current
I InP host substrate I I GaAs carrier substrat 1
gain ,B drops due to edge effects including sur- (a) (b)
face recombination and lateral electron diffusion.
AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs have attained very low sur-
emitter
face recombination rates through use of depleted base
AlGaAs surface passivation layers [3]. In In-
GaAs/InAlAs, reduction of p for narrow emit-
ters is much less severe because of the materials
lower surface recombination velocities. An effi-
cient Schottky collector contact must be as wide aAs carrier substrate
as the emitter, and alignment tolerances must
be accommodated. SCHBTs are sensitive to (C) (d)
misalignment between the collector and emitter
AllnAs emitter and GalnAs cap layer
stripes. If the collector thickness T, is kept con-
stant , scaling down the Schottky-collector con- base
tact width W, will not lead to proportional de- collector
crease in collector base capacitance if fringing
fields dominate. Schottkycollectorcontact

111. Fabrication and results

Figure 4: SCHBT fabrication process: (a)
Transferred substrate SCHBTs have been fabri- Schottky-collector contacts are deposited on
cated in the AlInAs/GaInAs system. The HBT MBE grown collector-up material. (b) The wafer
layers were grown on a SI InP substrate by MBE. is inverted and epoxied to a GaAs substrate.
The layer structure is shown in fig 3. After a (c) The InP substrate is removed by etching in
collector-up growth, metal is deposited to form HC1. (d) Remaining process steps follow a nor-
direct Schottky contacts (Ti/Pt/Au) to the col- mal HBT sequence
lector depletion layer. The wafer is then inverted
and epoxied to a GaAs substrate, whereupon the
InP substrate is removed by a selective etch. The
remaining processes then follow a normal HBT
fabrication sequence [2]. The process flow is sum-
marized in fig 4. Epoxy has been found to be ro- emitter contact
bust under processing. Fig. 5 shows the electron
micrograph of an SCHBT with W, = We = l p m base mesa
with aligned emitter and collector stripes.
Fig. 6 shows the rf characteristics of recently
fabricated SCHBTs. It compares two kinds of
SCHBTs. The former (fig. 6(a)) has 1pm emit- Schottky collector
ter and collector fingers. The latter (fig. 6(b)) running under
base mesa
has a l p m emitter but a large collector of the
full 11 pm width of the base mesa. This wide-
Figure 5: Electron micrograph of an SCHBT
collector device has a geometry similar to a nor-
with W, = We = l p m subsequent to epitaxial
mal HBT and serves as a standard of compari-
transfer, emitter and base ohmic contact depos-
son for the performance of the l p m transferred
tion, and base mesa etching.
substrate SCHBT. The control device exibits fT
= 55 GHz and fmaz = 37 GHz with a p of 20,
 ial transfer process which eliminates epoxy adhe-
sives in favor of standard IC-process-compatible
materials.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the AFOSR under

grant F49620-92-J-0469 and the ARPA under the
Thunder & Lightning program.
1 10 lo0
Frequency, GHz
(4 References
[l] U. Bhattacharya, M.J. Mondry, G. Hurtz,
I-H Tan, R. Pullela, M.Reddy, J. Guthrie,
h1.J.W. Rodwell, J.E. Bowers, IEEE Elec-
tron Device Lett.,vol. 16, no. 8, pp 357-359,
August 1995.

!2] J.F. Jensen, W.E. Stanchina, R.A. Metzger,

D.B. Rensch, R.F. Lohr, R.W. Quen, M.W.
Pierce, Y.K. Allen, and P.F. Lou, IEEE J .
Solid State Circuits, vol. 26, no. 3, pp 415-
1 10 100
Frequency, GHz 421, March 1991.
[3] C. Dai, W. Liu, A. Massengale, A.
Kameyama, and J.S. Harris,Jr., 1994 IEEE
Figure 6: Comparison of R F characteristics of (a) Device Research Conference, June 20-22,
an SCHBT with W , = We = l p m to (b) a wide Boulder Co.
collector SCHBT
[4] M. Hafizi, W.E. Stanchina, R.A. Metzger,
J.F. Jensen, F. Williams, IEEE Trans. Elec-
while the l p m transferred substrate SCHBT ex-
tron Devices, vol. 40, no. 12, pp 2178-2185,
ibits a similar f T but an f m a z improved 2.7:l to
December 1993.
100 GHz and a /3 of 10. Significantly longer base
transit time is the cause for lower values of fT
and f m a z in these devices. Devices with simi-

fT -
lar base and collector thicknesses have obtained
120 GHz [4]. With such material param-
eters, SCHBT f m a z should reach 220 GHz in a
1pm device. Better material parameters should
also lead t o better dc current gain values.

IV. Conclusion

Submicron scaling of transferred substrate

SCHBTs increases the device bandwidth consid-
erably. Cutoff frequencies near 500 GHz should
result for InAlAs/InGaAs devices, and the tech-
nology should provide similar improvements in
fmaz in the AlGaAs/GaAs and Si-Ge materials
system. Our current efforts are in the develop-
ment of a manufacturable high performance HBT
IC technology. This includes development of a
RIE etch process for fabrication of submicron
emitters, characterization of MBE growth to im-
prove base transit time, and an improved epitax-

148