Bipolar reliability optimization through surface compensation of the base profile

Abstract

Increased reliability of advanced bipolar devices was achieved by compensating the surface of the base doping profile with a shallow, low-dose arsenic implant. An order of magnitude increase in lifetime was obtained without a degradation in emitter coupled logic gate delay or f/sub T/, while a 100* improvement in lifetime was exhibited with approximately a 20% degradation in gate delay and f/sub T/. This technique is applicable to non-self-aligned as well as self-aligned bipolar devices.<>