DC characterization of InP/InGaAs tunneling emitter bipolar transistor

An InP/InGaAs tunneling emitter bipolar transistor (TEBT) is studied and demonstrated. From the simulation results, the band diagram, tunneling transmission, and carrier distribution of the device are analyzed as functions of barrier thickness. The higher the emitter injection efficiency, the higher the current gain and the larger the current drivability for the device studied by employing a tunneling barrier layer of suitable thickness. In addition, experimentally, InP/InGaAs TEBT has been fabricated successfully. Due to its excellent tunneling barrier structure, the studied device can be operated under an extremely wide collector current range. The operation range is larger than 11 decades of collector current (10(-12) to 10(-1) A). Moreover, the studied device exhibits a very small collector-emitter offset voltage (Delta V(CE)) of 40 mV and an extremely wide operation range of output current. Thus, the studied device is suitable for low-voltage and low-power circuit applications.