[paper] Thermal Management SiGe HBT in ICs

Boulgheb, Abdelaaziz

"Enhanced thermal management of SiGe HBT integrated circuits 

using the Peltier effect and DBC metal tracks"

Microelectronics Reliability 174 (2025): 115896

DOI: 10.1016/j.microrel.2025.115896

1 Department of Electronics, University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene, Bab Ezzouar 16111, Algeria.
2 Hyperfrequencies and Semiconductors Laboratory, Department of Electronics, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Frères Mentouri Constantine 1, PO Box 25017, Constantine, Algeria.

Abstract: Effective thermal management remains a major challenge for SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) integrated circuits, particularly in BiCMOS9MW 0.13µm technology. This study proposes a novel two-stage heat dissipation strategy that combines active thermoelectric cooling with passive DBC-based conduction an approach not previously explored in this context to address this issue. First, the Peltier effect is leveraged in combination with conventional plastic packaging to regulate circuit thermal performance. Second, Direct Bonded Copper (DBC) metal tracks are implemented to establish an efficient thermal pathway between the internal circuit and external heat sinks. Experimental results indicate that standard plastic packaging alone results in excessive heating (Tmax = 467 K). The incorporation of the Peltier effect significantly reduces the peak temperature to 380 K, while the addition of DBC tracks further enhances cooling, lowering the temperature to 340 K. Unlike traditional cooling solutions that rely solely on packaging or external heatsinks, our method enables localized, controllable heat extraction directly at the chip level, ensuring better thermal regulation and improved electrical performance. This dual approach not only mitigates self-heating but also leads to notable improvements in DC and RF performance. Specifically, the maximum current gain (βmax) increases from 1913 to 2183, and the transit frequency (ft) rises from 265 GHz to 285.6 GHz. These findings underscore the effectiveness of the combined Peltier-based cooling and DBC thermal management in enabling next-generation high-frequency applications.

Fig. a) SiGe HBT device structure simulated with COMSOL, showing the log of electron and hole concentrations. b) SEM cross-sectional view of the SiGe HBT.

[paper] p-Type Doped Silicene-based

Mu Wen Chuan, Munawar Agus Riyadi, Afiq Hamzah, Nurul Ezaila Alias, Suhana Mohamed Sultan, Cheng Siong Lim, Michael Loong Peng Tan

Device performances analysis of p-type doped silicene-based field effect transistor using SPICE-compatible model

PLoS ONE 17(3): e0264483.: March 3, 2022

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264483

   
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia

Abstract: Moore’s Law is approaching its end as transistors are scaled down to tens or few atoms per device, researchers are actively seeking for alternative approaches to leverage more-than-Moore nanoelectronics. Substituting the channel material of a field-effect transistors (FET) with silicene is foreseen as a viable approach for future transistor applications. In this study, we proposed a SPICE-compatible model for p-type (Aluminium) uniformly doped silicene FET for digital switching applications. The performance of the proposed device is benchmarked with various low-dimensional FETs in terms of their on-to-off current ratio, subthreshold swing and drain-induced barrier lowering. The results show that the proposed p-type silicene FET is comparable to most of the selected low-dimensional FET models. With its decent performance, the proposed SPICE-compatible model should be extended to the circuit-level simulation and beyond in future work.

Fig: Schematic diagrams of AlSi3 FET: (a) the structure and 

(b) the ToB nanotransistor circuit model. 

Acknowledgements: 1.) Michael Tan Loong Peng - Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of Malaysia through the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme(FRGS/1/2021/ STG07/ UTM/02/3); The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. 2.) Munawar Agus Riyadi - World Class Research Universitas Diponegoro (WCRU) 2021 Grant no. 118-16/UN7.6.1/PP/2021; The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.