Very wide current-regime operation of an InP/InGaAs tunneling emitter bipolar transistor (TEBT)

A novel InP/InGaAs tunneling emitter bipolar transistor (TEBT) is fabricated and demonstrated. The studied device can be operated under extremely wide collector current regime larger than 11 decades in magnitude (10−12 to 10−1 A). A current gain of 3.8 is obtained even operated at an ultra-low collector current of 3 × 10−12 A (1.2 × 10−7 A/cm2). Furthermore, at lower VBE bias regime (VBE < 0.4 V), the low base current ideality factors are found. These results reveal that the tunneling probability for holes is very small. Therefore, the emitter injection efficiency is substantially improved.