Performance degradation due to extrinsic base encroachment in advanced narrow-emitter bipolar circuits

Abstract

The author presents a detailed two-dimensional numerical simulation study on the performance degradation caused by the extrinsic base encroachment in advanced narrow-emitter bipolar circuits. It is shown that depending on the circuit families used, the extrinsic base encroachment results in distinct effects on the operation and performance of the circuits. The design considerations and scaling implications for saturating and nonsaturating circuits are discussed, using basic inverter and NTL (non-threshold-logic) as examples.