Modelling of parasitic effects induced by electrically active defects in a SiGe HBT

Abstract

In this paper, we present a numerical modelling of a NPN SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) realized in an industrial 0.35 µm BiCMOS process, using our own software simulator “SIBIDIF”, taking into account some electrically active defects in the HBT device. The electric performances of this device can be penalized by the presence of defects inherent to the complex structure shrinking. For our devices, most of these relevant defects are located at the vertical interface between the spacers and the polysilicon emitter, due to the Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) process step. Nevertheless, their localization, as well as theirs effective density or their capture section, have an influence on the electric characteristics of the HBT's. As a check, we find some good agreement between our simulated results and some experimental ones. Our work is focused on the identification of defects responsible for the current fluctuations at the origin of low frequency noise or Random Telegraphic Signals in industrial submicronic BiCMOS technologies. Gummel characteristics are simulated in order to identify generation-recombination or trap assisted tunnelling process in the base current. We have shown that devices having an excess base current present random discrete fluctuations on the base current.