An investigation of the temperature dependent linearity of weakly-saturated, electrically-matched SiGe NPN and PNP HBTs

The linearity of electrically-matched NPN and PNP silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) on insulator (SOI) under weakly-saturated conditions, at both room temperature (300 K) and an elevated temperature (373 K), is investigated and compared for the first time. In addition, the potential circuit leverage associated with using matched complementary SiGe HBTs biased in weak-saturation is demonstrated using a Class AB push-pull output stage of a current feedback amplifier.