Avalanche-induced 1/f noise in bipolar transistors

It has been proposed that degradation of low current h
FE
, as a result of avalanching the emitter-base junction of a bipolar transistor, can be attributed to an increase in surface recombination velocity within the emitter-base space-charge region. This work shows that 1/
f
noise is also increased during avalanche and that this increase is consistent with a previously reported correlation between surface recombination velocity and 1/
f
noise.