A semiconductor device comprising a bipolar transistor and a method of making the same. The bipolar transistor includes a collector having a laterally extending drift region. The bipolar transistor also includes a base located above the collector. The bipolar transistor further includes an emitter located above the base. The bipolar transistor also includes a reduced surface field (RESURF) gate located above an upper surface of the laterally extending drift region for shaping an electric field within the collector. The bipolar transistor further includes a gap located between the reduced surface field gate and an extrinsic region of the base of the device, for electrically isolating the reduced surface field gate from the base. A lateral dimension Lgap of the gap is in the range 0.1 μm≦Lgap≦1.0 μm.