Abstract
Single cell electric short failure mode of HBT power amplifier is presented with a discussion of its failure signature and mechanism. HBTs with low breakdown voltage of the base–collector junction are studied with an I– V curve tracer. Several controlled experiments were conducted in an effort to duplicate the failure signature and identify the root cause of the short failure. An infrared photoemission microscopy technique is demonstrated to be an efficient method to quickly locate a single weak HBT cell from the large parallel HBT transistor cell array that comprises the power amplifier output stage. Methods to estimate and reduce the failure rate are discussed.
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