Patent ID: 6529063
Filing Date: 2003-03-04
Classification: H01L,H03F

Abstract:
A device for controlling thermal runaway in heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) comprising:a common-emitter cell and a common-base cell; each cell having a first subcell and a second subcell; said first and second subcell of the common-emitter cell having at least one transistor in each subcell; said first and second subcell of the common-base cell having at least one transistor in each subcell; each transistor of the subcells in the common-emitter cell and common-base cell further comprising an emitter, a collector and a base; said device having power generation and current generation regions in separate temperature zones; said transistor collectors in a cold zone being connected directly to emitter terminals of corresponding transistors in a hot zone, thereby substantially preventing said transistors in the hot zone from drawing more current from other transistor sources when temperature increases occur and preventing said transistors from overheating and burning out.