Disclosed is a semiconductor structure with a lateral bipolar junction transistor (BJT). This semiconductor structure can be readily integrated into advanced silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology platforms. Furthermore, to maintain or improve upon performance characteristics (e.g., cut-off frequency (fT)/maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) and beta cut-off frequency) that would otherwise be negatively impacted due to changing of the orientation of the BJT from vertical to lateral, the semiconductor structure can further include a dielectric stress layer (e.g., a tensilely strained layer in the case of an NPN-type transistor or a compressively strained layer in the case of a PNP-type transistor) partially covering the lateral BJT for charge carrier mobility enhancement and the lateral BJT can be configured as a lateral heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). Also disclosed is a method for forming the semiconductor structure.