Cadmium sulfide layers for indium phosphide-based heterojunction bipolar transistors

摘要

A novel indium phosphide (InP) based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) is described. A II-VI compound, cadmium sulfide (CdS), is used as the emitter to improve the emitter injection efficiency and reduce recombination losses. The cadmium sulfide emitter is applied following the epitaxial growth of III-V compound collector and base regions. The large valence band discontinuity (□E=0.75 eV) between CdS and InP allows InP to be used for both the base and collector material. Prior to cadmium sulfide deposition, the exposed surfaces of the epitaxial layers can be passivated with sulfur, further reducing the recombination losses.