Analytical modeling of oxide breakup effect on base current in n/sup +/-polysilicon emitter bipolar devices

The authors have modeled the base current change with different percentages of broken interface-oxide area (interface void). A pseudo-two-dimensional structure of dual channels of minority-carrier transport at the interface between the polysilicon and the silicon emitter, is constructed in analogy with an electrically equivalent conductance network. Using the conductance network, an analytical expression of base current is easily derived. For typical polysilicon emitter devices of approximately 10-15 AA interface oxide, the experimental results show that the strong dependence of base current on the fraction of interface void can be modeled. The simulation predicts that the base current will be insensitive to the fraction of interface oxide breakup for very thin interface-oxide polysilicon emitter devices. Recent reports on finding a process window between current gain and emitter resistance optimization in a certain range of interface breakup ratios are confirmed by the model.>