Study of switching and Kirk effects in InALAs/InGaAs/InALAs double heterojunction bipolar transistors

This paper investigates the two dominant but intertwined current blocking mechanisms of Switching and Kirk Effect in pure ternary InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs Double Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (DHBTs). Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) grown, lattice-matched samples have been investigated giving substantial experimental results and theoretical reasoning to explain the interplay between these two effects as the current density is increased up to and beyond the theoretical Kirk Effect limit for devices of emitter areas varying from 20×20 μm2 to 1×5 μm2. Pure ternary InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs DHBTs are ideally suited for such investigations because, unless corrective measures are taken, these devices suffer from appreciable current blocking effect due to their large conduction band discontinuity of 0.5 eV and thus facilitating the observation of the two different physical phenomena. This enhanced understanding of the interplay between the Kirk and Switching effect makes the DHBT device design and optimization process more effective and efficient.