ABSTRACT
The reliability of silicon–germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is fundamentally the same as that of the silicon bipolar transistor. It benefits from the many years of experience and cycles of learning, not only in the transistor itself but also in the interconnect technology. The SiGe HBTs inherits the many advantages, infrastructure and maturity of silicon bipolar transistors. The relatively high current density of SiGe HBTs was one of the major concerns during the qualification phase of SiGe technologies. Increased operation current density is required for current newer generations to achieve speed improvement. From the reliability perspective, however, it imposes mostly adverse effects on the device. The reliability of SiGe has been successfully validated over the last decade through many commercial and space applications where stringent qualification requirement has been consistently met. With judicious observance of technology design rules and the application of validated reliability models, it can be successfully used under very stringent and challenging environments.
