Low noise amplifiers in SiGe hetero-junction bipolar process using reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition

Abstract — In this paper, an economic SiGe HBT (hetero-junction bipolar transistor) process using reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) process of high throughput and the cheap localized oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) instead of shallow trench, was developed and characterized. To test its feasibility, several low noise amplifiers were designed and fabricated. As well as high cutoff frequency and low noise SiGe HBT devices, the passive elements including planar spiral inductors with only two metal layers, metal-insulator-metal capacitor, three kinds of resistors, and varactor diode were also integrated in the process. With carefully designing of the base profile and adopting finger-type structure, the measured minimum noise figure of 1.5 dB and associated gain of 16 dB at 1.8 GHz consuming the collector current of 4.6 mA at the supply voltage of 2.5V, were obtained in the low noise device. After on-wafer calibration, one of the fabricated low noise amplifiers was measured as 2.5 dB NF and 21 dB insertion gain at the frequency of 1.8 GHz with the supply voltage of 2.5 V. Those results using the epitaxial growth by RPCVD are firstly reported, and show its possibility to RF arena. I