Stress Effect on Current-Induced Degradation of Be-Doped AlGaAs/GaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors

The effect of stress on the current-induced degradation of current-voltage characteristics in AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors with Be-doped base layers is investigated. Transistors with different orientations of the emitter mesa and different thicknesses of the passivation film are bias tested at room temperature. The results are compared with the stress distributions along the emitter-base junction obtained from a two-dimensional calculation using the boundary element method. It is found that the degradation is caused by the diffusion of Be under high-current density operations and that the flux of Be diffusing from the base layer to the emitter layer is strongly related to the stress distributions around the periphery of the emitter-base junction.