2015 IEEE International Symposium on Nanoelectronic and Information Systems
Extended Base Schottky-collector Bipolar Charge
Plasma Transistor
Lokesh Kumar Bramhane, and Jawar Singh*
Abstract—In this paper, we have proposed a new device
structure of schottky-collector bipolar charge plasma transistor
(SC-BCPT) with an extended base of thickness (tB = 25
nm). The charge plasma concept eliminates different doping
requirements for emitter and base regions, as a result, simplified
fabrication process and improved current gain (β). However,
extended base concept yields improved cut-off frequency (fT ) of
the proposed device. The Hafnium and stack of TiN/HfSiOx /SOI
doped with Fluorine metal electrodes were employed to induce
electrons and holes concentration at the emitter and base
regions, respectively. Two-dimensional TCAD simulations of the
proposed device demonstrate higher current gain of 37 × 106
and a peak cut-off frequency of 43.04 GHz as compared to the
conventional SC-BCPT.
Index Terms- Schottky, charge plasma, workfunction, current
gain, cut-off frequency.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In bipolar junction transistor (BJT), the cut-off frequency
decreases due to minority carrier injection into the base region.
To succeed in dealing with the degraded cut-off frequency
(fT ), the schottky-collector bipolar transistors (SCBTs) [1]
and schottky-collector bipolar charge plasma transistors (SC-
BCPTs) [2] coupled with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) have
emerged over the years as a potential candidates. These devices
offer high switching speed and current gain, and become a
strong candidate for digital integrated circuits (ICs) and mixed
mode circuits. In conventional bipolar transistors, impurities
(doping) are added to the intrinsic semiconductor materials
for the purpose of modulating their electrical characteristics,
but this doping process requires very high temperature, which
increases the thermal budget requirements. In this pursuit, a
concept of charge plasma (CP) was introduced in [3], [4] that
eliminates the doping requirements by introducing the contact
electrode workfunction engineering [5].
The concept of CP has introduced high current gain in
bipolar devices due to reduction in the flow of minority carriers
from the base [6]–[8]. The SiGe based bipolar transistor
with SALTran effect was introduced to make the super beta
(very high gain) bipolar transistors [9]. However, in [2], the
combination of schottky-contact along with charge plasma
has led to both high current gain and cut-off frequency. In
schottky-collector bipolar transistor, the breakdown voltage
is improved by reducing the electric field in the collector
region [10]. The symmetric lateral bipolar transistor with
*The authors are with the Department of Electronics and Communica-
tion Engineering, PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology Design
and Manufacturing, Jabalpur, MP, 482005 India. E-mail: (lokesh.bramhane,
jawar@iiitdmj.ac.in).
978-1-4673-9692-9/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/iNIS.2015.67
Fig. 1. The schematic diagrams of (a) proposed extended base SC-BCPT
and (b) the conventional SC-BCPT.
extended base reported high cut-off frequency but poor self
gain [11]. Recently, in a brief [7], the concept of extended
base and charge plasma were employed that exhibits high cut-
off frequency and current gain in the symmetric bipolar charge
plasma transistor.
In this paper, we present a detailed study of and trade-off
among different device parameters of our previously proposed
device [7], the ‘extended base schottky-collector bipolar charge
plasma transistor (SC-BCPT)’ with 25 nm extension of base
thickness to further increase the cut-off frequency and current
gain. The extension of base thickness enhances the barrier
height seen by the electrons at the base-emitter and base-
collector junction reduces, which results in decrement in
the emitter-to-collector transit time (τ ), and high injection
effect increases the collector current, that offers high cut-off
frequency and current gain. The proposed device is simulated
using two-dimensional (2-D) Silvaco ATLAS TCAD simula-
tor [12], we found that the proposed device possess improved
performance than the conventional SC-BCPT.
Throughout our simulations: Philip’s unified mobility
model [13], band gap narrowing model [14], concentra-
tion dependent life-time model, Selberherr impact ionization
model [15], and Auger recombination model are used with
default silicon parameters. Moreover, we have facilitated the
Klaassens model for Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombina-
tion with intrinsic carrier lifetimes nie = nih = 0.2 μs [16].
Process resistances of base, emitter, and collector contacts are
assumed as 400 Ω, 450 Ω, and 450 Ω, respectively.
II. D EVICE S TRUCTURE AND S IMULATION PARAMETERS
The cross-sectional views of the extended base SC-BCPT
and the conventional SC-BCPT are shown in Fig. 1(a) and
137
 Fig. 3. Electron-hole concentration of the extended base SC-BCPT and the
Fig. 2. Gummel plot of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT and
conventional SC-BCPT under thermal equilibrium.
conventional SC-BCPT.

TABLE I. SIMULATION PARAMETERS

Parameters extended base Conventional

SC-BCPT SC-BCPT
SOI thickness (nm) 30 30
BOX thickness (nm) 300 300
Electrode Sep. (nm) Ls1 = 10; Ls1 = 10;
Ls2 = 200 Ls2 = 200
Silicon doping (cm−3 ) NA = 1×1014 NA = 1×1014
Emitter length (nm) 50 50
Base width (nm) 40 40
extended base (nm) 25 -

Fig. 4. Electron-hole concentration of the extended base SC-BCPT and the

Fig. 1(b), respectively. The simulation parameters of the device
are: the separation between the contacts Ls1 = 10 nm and
Ls2 = 200 nm, base width = 40 nm, emitter length = 50
nm, the ultrathin silicon film doping N = 1 × 1014 , silicon
thickness tSi = 30 nm, the buried-oxide thickness tBOX =
300 nm, [2]. These simulation parameters also summarized
in Table I. In the extended base SC-BCPT, the workfunction
of metallic contacts (electrodes) for the emitter, base, and
collector are chosen as 3.9 eV (Halfnium metal), 5.4 eV
(stack of TiN/HfSiOx /SOI doped with Fluorine metal), and
4.28 eV (Aluminium metal),respectively [2]. Capping layer
method is used to control the effective workfunction in high-k
stack. In which, doping a TiN/HfSiOx stack with F, effective
workfunction of 5.4 eV can be achieved due to high elec-
tronegativity of fluorine [17]. The electron concentration (nE
= 1 × 1019 cm−3 ) and hole concentration (pB = 9 × 1018
cm−3 ) are maintained in the emitter and base regions of the
extended base SC-BCPT using appropriate workfunction of
metallic contacts (electrodes). The simulation parameters for
the proposed device are same as above except extended base
of 25 nm.
For charge plasma concept, the workfunction of emitter
metal contact (electrode) (φm,E ) should be less than the work-
function of silicon (φsi ), thereby, accumulation of electrons in
emitter region occurs, i.e, φm,E < φsi . Similarly, the work-
function of base metal contact (φm,B ) should be greater than
conventional SC-BCPT under forward active bias.
the workfunction of silicon (φsi ) for accumulation of holes in
the base region, i.e, φm,B > φsi . The workfunction difference
between the metal and silicon ±(φm - φsi ) must be greater than
∼ 0.5 eV for the accumulation of electrons or holes in specific
region [5]. The silicon thickness of 30 nm is chosen which is
less than Debye length to take into account the electrostatic
effects [6]. Both electron-hole carrier concentrations and the
energy band diagram of the emitter/collector and base regions
for the extended base SC-BCPT and the conventional SC-
BCPT are taken horizontally at a distance of 2 nm underneath
from the silicon-oxide interface [8].
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
Fig. 2 shows the Gummel plots for the extended base SC-
BCPT and the conventional SC-BCPT for a fixed collector base
voltage (VCB = 1 V). We observed that the extended base SC-
BCPT exhibits higher collector current than the conventional
SC-BCPT due to increment in emitter injection efficiency,
while base current is similar to the conventional SC-BCPT.
The current gain (β) of the bipolar devices can be defined as
IC
β= (1)
IB

138
Fig. 5. Energy band diagram of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT and
conventional SC-BCPT under thermal equilibriums
Fig. 6. Energy band diagram of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT and
conventional SC-BCPT under forward active bias
where IC is the collector current and IB is the base current.
Emitter injection efficiency increases because of the extended
base at the top of the existing base lowers the barrier seen
by the electron from emitter. Due to this, collector current
increases which is proportional to current gain. On the other
hand introduction of extended base at the top of existing base
does not varies the base current of the proposed device as
shown in Fig. 2.
The electron and hole concentrations of the proposed device
and the conventional SC-BCPT are shown in Fig. 3 under
thermal equilibrium and in Fig. 4 for active region (VCE = 1 V
and VBE = 0.8 V). In the proposed extended base SC-BCPT,
under the thermal equilibrium, hole concentration is reduces
due to extended base of 25 nm and under the forward active
region, it is slightly higher than the electron concentration of
the proposed extended base SC-BCPT. Due to this, electrons
from emitter can travel at much faster rate towards the collector
region which results decrement in emitter-to-collector transit
time (τ ). Reduction in τ increases the cut-off frequency of the
proposed device compared to the conventional.
The energy band diagram of the extended base SC-BCPT
and the conventional SC-BCPT are shown in Fig. 5 under
thermal equilibrium, and in Fig. 6 for forward active region.
139
Fig. 7. Output characteristic curves of the conventional SC-BCPT.
Fig. 8. Output characteristic curves of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT.
The barrier height seen by the electrons at base-emitter and
base-collector junctions have been reduced due to extended
base thickness. Due to extended base thickness, induced hole
plasma is now shifted to upward direction near the base metal
contact and silicon. As a result, conduction band energy at
the base-emitter junction and base-collector junctions reduces,
which in turn reduces the barrier height seen by the electron
present in emitter region that increases the emitter injection
efficiency. Hence, results in increment in collector current,
which is proportional to self gain β.
Fig. 7 shows the output characteristic curves of the conven-
tional SC-BCPT, it can be observed that the collector current
of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT as shown in Fig. 8 is
higher. Hence the proposed extended base SC-BCPT exhibits
higher transconductance, gm . From simulations, the current
gain of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT is 37 × 106
compared to conventional SC-BCPT (β = 13068) as shown in
Fig. 9.
Increment in collector current of the proposed device is the
result of higher emitter injection efficiency which is due to
reduction in barrier height at the base. Apart from this, in the
conventional SC-BCPT, barrier height is large because of more
electron-hole diffusion take place at the emitter-base junction.
With the introduction of extended base at the top of existing

Fig. 9. Current gain of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT and conven-
tional SC-BCPT.
Fig. 10. Cut-off frequency of the proposed extended base SC-BCPT and
conventional SC-BCPT.
base, results decrement in electron-hole diffusion and allows
more electrons from the emitter-to-collector.
Further, due to reduction in barrier height, reduces the
emitter-to-collector transit time τ , which in turn improves the
cut-off frequency. Also transconductance (gm ) of the proposed
device is improved due to increment in collector current. The
cut-off frequency can be defined as:
1
fT = (2)
2Πτ
where, τ is the emitter-to-collector transit time. In our pro-
posed extended base SC-BCPT, cut-off frequency is 43.04
GHz, while in conventional SC-BCPT, it is 36.67 GHz as
shown in Fig. 10. Due to increment in gm and reduction in τ ,
both are the combined reason of improved cut-off frequency.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this work, we have implemented the extended base
schottky-collector bipolar charge plasma transistor with the
extended base thickness of 25 nm. The combination of charge
plasma, extended base and schottky-collector yielded improve-
ment in both current gain and cut-off frequency as compared
to conventional schottky-collector bipolar charge plasma tran-
sistor. In charge plasma, reduction in diffusion of holes from
140
the base into emitter results increment in β while extended
base concept introduces the lower base capacitance that is the
inverse of fT . While schottky-collector improves the cut-off
frequency due to less collector storage time. Also barrier height
seen by the electron is also reduced which further increases
the cut-off frequency of the proposed device.
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