Comprehensive analysis of GR noise in InGaP–GaAs HBT by physics-based simulation and low frequency characterization

The presence of noise in semi-conductor devices is a major drawback for good quality telecommunications or radar links. It plays an important role on the deterioration of spectral purity in frequency sources and in mixer circuits used in emission and reception in these systems. Thus, the circuit designers must take it into account in their designs by using accurate noise models of transistors. However, these models will be reliable only if the origin of the noise is well-known. The only solution to solve this problem is to have a physics-based simulator including noise simulation, whose results can be compared with noise measurements of the simulated device. This paper presents such a tool, based on a first deterministic simulation with the commercial Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) SENTAURUS from SYNOPSYS and whose results are transferred to a home-made tool based on the free SCILAB platform. Thus, this package enables us to simulate the generation–recombination (GR) noise due to traps generated in the device, in this case an InGaP–GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) from UMS foundry. The setup for low frequency (LF) noise characterization available in the lab, allowed us to compare the HBT equivalent current noise sources measured and those simulated with good agreement. This full LF noise comparison of InGaP–GaAs HBT behaviour is the first published to our knowledge and these results confirm a posteriori the pertinency of the LF noise model we developed a few years ago.

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