Solid-State Electronics, Vol.44, No.7, 1169-1172, 2000
Effects of ex situ annealing on electrical characteristics of p-n-p AlGaAs/InGaAsN/GaAs double heterojunction bipolar transistors
We report the effects of postgrowth annealing on the DC characteristics of p-n-p Al0.3Ga0.7As/ In0.03Ga0.97As0.99N0.01/GaAs (AlCaAs/InCaAsN/GaAs) double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs). The DC electrical characteristics of p-n-p AlGaAs/InGaAsN/GaAs DHBTs with postgrowth anneal are inferior to those of DHBTs without anneal. We found that the current gain decreases by a factor of two and the offset voltage and saturation voltage increase slightly, which indicate that the electrical properties of AlGaAs/InGaAsN/GaAs DHBTs could not be improved by postgrowth anneal treatment. We believe that the compensation effect on the crystalline quality of ex situ thermally annealed n-type InGaAsN base layer is the main factor for degraded DC characteristics of AlGaAs/ InGaAsN/GaAs DHBTs.