Hot carrier induced HFE degradation in BiCMOS transistors

Abstract

Experimental results are presented of an investigation designed to develop an understanding of the physical mechanisms and the process inputs causing reduced hot carrier reliability in BiCMOS npn transistors. The overall objective is to correlate and extract information on process module and device design during product development and to develop reliability-driven rules which can be used to reduce hot carrier degradation of the forward current gain and to improve overall transistor reliability. The results show the effects of the intrinsic base implant dose and energy as well as thermal history on hot-carrier-induced forward-current-gain degradation in BiCMOS npn transistors.<>