Complementary bipolar transistor structure and method for manufacture

Abstract

A complementary bipolar transistor structure having one symmetrical intrinsic region for both the NPN and PNP transistors and a method for fabricating the structure. The transistor structure includes a vertical NPN transistor operating in the upward direction and a vertical PNP transistor operating in a downward direction. In the method, the sub-emitter and the sub-collector regions are formed by depositing a first epitaxial layer of semiconductor material of a first conductivity type on the surface of a semiconductor substrate of a second conductivity type, and forming the sub-collector by etchig a shallow trench in the first layer and depositing semiconductor material of a second conductivity tyep by LTE and planarizing. The intrinsic regions for both of the transistors are formed by depositing a second layer of semiconductor material of the second conductivity type on the surface of the first layer and a third layer of semiconductor material of the first conductivity type on the surface of the second layer by either LTE or MBE. In one embodiment, the second and third layers are provided with a uniform vertical doping profile for one thickness of the layer and a graded doping profile for the remaining thickness in which the minimum doping level for both graded portions is at the junction between the second and third layers. The second layers forms the base and the third layer forms the collector for one transistor while at the same time the second layer forms a collector and the third layer forms the base for the other transistor. The performance of the intrinsic base and collector regions can be further improved by forming the second and third layers with a compound semiconductor material, such as, the compound of Si-Ge to create a heterojunction transistor. Device and intrinsic region isolation is effected by a combination of deep trench and shallow trench processes and reach-through regions for the sub-emitter and sub-collector are formed. A layer of polysilicon is deposited and selectively etched to form an extrinsic collector region for one transistor and extrinsic base regions for the other transistor. A further loayer of single crystal silicon is deposited to form the extrinsic base region for one transistor and the emitter for the other transistor.