A manufacturable poly-emitter graded-SiGe HBT technology for wireless and mixed-signal applications

Graded SiGe-base heterojunction transistors (HBTs) offer the advantages of bandgap engineering while maintaining the cost and manufacturing benefits of the silicon industry. For a technology to be widely used in the mixed signal applications arena it must offer more than just the HBT: it must have a complete set of passive elements and interconnects suitable for the rf design environment. This paper describes the development and current status of IBM's advanced SiGe HBT technology installed on a 200 mm CMOS/DRAM line. It reviews basic principles of HBT operation, discusses the aspects of the ultra high vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHV/CVD) growth technique, describes the overall SiGe HBT process, the performance of the HBTs and support devices, and the circuit results achieved to date.