Measurement of the low-current base and emitter resistances of bipolar transistors

Abstract

A new ac method is proposed to measure the emitter and base resistances of bipolar transistorsat low current levels at which the effective transistor geometry is given by the processing and is unaffected by the changes induced by high currents. The technique is based on a measurement of the input impedance at frequencies below about 50 MHz. It is particularly suited for the measurement of the physical emitter resistance of scaled transistors. The method is illustrated on microwave transistors with metal contacts and on self-aligned digital transistors with polysilicon contacts. A comparison of the results obtained using this method with those from dc methods operating at high currents can be used to explore the current dependencies of the resistances. The technique is applicable both for homojunction and heterojunction transistors.