Emitter resistance REE and collector current ideality factor nC of InGaP/GaAs heterostructure bipolar transistors (HBTs) and InP/InGaAs double-HBTs (DHBTs) were investigated from the viewpoints of DC and RF characteristics. It was found that the apparent ideality factor of collector current nCapp increases with the collector current IC for all HBTs. The increase in nCapp is more conspicuous in the InP/InGaAs DHBTs than in the InGaP/GaAs HBTs. The most likely explanation is that the REE consists of two components: one is the well-known contact resistivity REE0 and the other is band-profile-dependent resistivity REi, which decreases as IC increases. In the InP/InGaAs DHBTs, the increase in nCapp with IC is made remarkable by the insertion of an InGaAs etching stop layer (ESL) that makes it easy to form a ledge structure indispensable for high-reliability and high-performance HBTs. However, with the increase of IC, the difference in REE between the InP/InGaAs DHBTs with and without the ESL becomes small. The insertion of an ESL is considered acceptable for high-speed IC applications. Using an emitter structure with an ESL, we developed self-aligned InP/InGaAs DHBTs with a ledge passivation structure that attained an fT of 302 GHz, fmax of 388 GHz, and BVCEO of 6.2 V.