Current transport mechanism in InGaP/GaAsSb/GaAs double-heterojunction bipolar transistors

摘要

We have developed InGaP/GaAsSb/GaAs double-heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) with low turn-on voltage and high current gain by using a narrow energy bandgap GaAsSb layer as the base and an InGaP layer as the emitter. The current transport mechanism is examined by measuring both of the terminal currents in forward and reverse mode. The results show that the dominant current transport mechanism in the InGaP/GaAsSb/GaAs DHBTs is the transport of carriers across the base layer. This finding suggests that the bandgap offset produced by incorporating Sb composition into GaAs mainly appears on the valence band and the conduction-band offset in InGaP/GaAsSb heterojunction is very small. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.