A 73 GHz f/sub T/ 0.18 /spl mu/m RF-SiGe BiCMOS technology considering thermal budget trade-off and with reduced boron-spike effect on HBT characteristics

Abstract

This paper describes a 73 GHz f/sub T/ 0.18 /spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS technology. This BiCMOS technology has the following key points: (1) The 2-step annealing technique for CMOS is utilized to solve the thermal budget trade-off between SiGe HBTs and CMOS. (2) A robust Ge profile design is implemented to improve the thermal stability of the SiGe base layer. (3) The Si-spacer layer is inserted between the Si collector and the SiGe base layer in order to reduce undesirable boron-spike effect. This process yields the SiGe HBT with f/sub T/ of 73 GHz and f/sub max/ of 61 GHz without compromising 0.18 /spl mu/m p/sup +//n/sup +/ dual gate CMOS characteristics.