Communication systems today comprise the major use of GaAs technology with the highest volumes found in the cellular handset front-end. Here, heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) power amplifiers (PA) and Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor (PHEMT) switches enjoy a comfortable market share. In this environment, the demands of production design require a robust CAD system with acc...

Fig. 1. Cross-section of self-aligned base-emitter junction from Teledyne 500nm HBT process [6] InP-based transistor technologies, both high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs), have demonstrated the highest reported transistor RF figures-of-merit. Both device technologies have been reported with current gain cutoff frequencies (ft) in exc...

Bipolar transistor performances can be characterized by figures of merit such as cut-off frequency, maximum frequency of oscillation and Emitter Coupled Logic gate delay. We studied the required figures of merit for digital application and the effects of lateral and vertical scaling to the figures of merit of SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor. With lateral scaling, the width of emitter fin...

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to Dr. John D. Cressler for his patience, guidance, and support throughout my master's program. My inspiration came from his passion for research and his confidence in my abilities. Working under his leadership in such an exciting field was both educationally and professionally enriching. I would also like to thank the other members of my thesis advisory co...

The need to serve the explosion in data bandwidth demand for fixed and mobile applications has driven transistor performance requirements beyond the reach of conventional silicon devices. Scaling limits of silicon-based bipolar transistors have been encountered, confining further performance gains by traditional means, but cost considerations favor the continued use of silicon-derived technolog...

We have demonstrated a heterojunction bipolar transistor using a novel compound collector (CCHBT) design that allows a low-knee voltage and high-breakdown voltage to be obtained simultaneously. The novel aspect of this design is to use a short wide band-gap collector only over a narrow portion of the collector, where the field is highest. This allows support of high fields while maintaining a l...