Abstract:
1,065,531. Transistors. PHILIPS ELECTRONIC & ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES Ltd. March 29, 1964 [March 29, 1963], No. 7584/64. Heading H1K. In a junction transistor in which the base zone occupies only a limited part of the body cross-section the emitter zone is in an elongated recess in a base contact layer which substantially surrounds it, the layer being widened at the point at which a supply conductor is secured to it. The recess and the widened part of the base contact layer are preferably the same shape and size and may be arranged with their longitudinal dimensions in line, as in Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 11 (not shown), mutually perpendicular as in Fig. 5 (not shown) or side by side as in Figs. 1, 3 and 4 (also not shown). The recess is typically oval, rectangular or semi-circular. Preferably the supply conductors are thermocompression bonded to the emitter zone and base contact layer by means of a pressure chisel. In this case although the bonded area extends mainly in the direction of elongation of the chisel i.e. at right angles to the axis of the wire the maximum spread of wire material over the contacted surface is along the axis of the wire. Therefore generally the wires are arranged with their axes along the longitudinal direction of the recess and widened part of the base contact layer. If, however, short-circuiting of the emitter-base junction as a result of this spread is prevented, as by an oxide film on the semi-conductor or base contact material the wires may have their axes perpendicular to this. In a typical NPN germanium transistor, Fig. 2, the base zone is formed by diffusion into an N-type wafer from an indium-germanium source. An evaporated base contact 6 of aluminium indium alloy is alloyed to it and the emitter zone 5 then formed by diffusion from arsenic vapour. The layers are finally reduced to mesa form by etching. In an alternative method the emitter diffusion precedes formation of the base contact.