What is silicon germanium used for?

Silicon–germanium is an important material that is used for the fabrication of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors and strained Si metal–oxide– semiconductor (MOS) transistors for advanced complementary metal—oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) and BiCMOS (bipolar CMOS) technologies.

What is SiGe used for?

Abstract: Silicon germanium (SiGe) is a semiconductor technology made for wireless applications. It offers the high-speed, high-frequency performance needed for wireless systems, and it provides the potential for integrating analog, RF, and digital functions on a single integrated circuit (IC).

What is silicon germanium alloy?

SiGe (/ˈsɪɡiː/ or /ˈsaɪdʒiː/), or silicon-germanium, is an alloy with any molar ratio of silicon and germanium, i.e. with a molecular formula of the form Si1−xGex. SiGe is also used as a thermoelectric material for high temperature applications (>700 K).

Why only Si and Ge are used as semiconductors?

Since they are in the same column, we know that silicon and germanium have the same number of electrons in their outer or valence shell. Germanium atoms have one more shell than silicon atoms, but what makes for the interesting semiconductor properties is the fact that both have four electrons in the valence shell.

What is the critical thickness of SiGe and GE?

The Ge content has been varied between 10% and 50%. For a typical Ge content of 30% the critical SiGe thickness is about 40 nm. Layers of SiGe of 20 nm have been grown – i.e. markedly below the critical thickness of 40 nm. As a consequence, the SiGe layer was fully pseudomorphic, which induces a biaxial compressive strain within the SiGe layer.

What are the differences between GE and Si diodes?

These main differences are — Maximum working temperature. 1) The threshold voltage at which a forward biased device begins to conduct widely (since near 1 mA) is lower in the Ge diode, 0.25 V versus 0.65 V for Si, approximately (it depends significantly on the tempe What is the difference between the diodes of silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge)?

What are the basic properties of Si 1-x GE X?

Also, data that are important for the relaxation of Si 1-x Ge x on Si, such as critical thickness or misfit dislocation glide velocities, are incorporated. The more detailed part of this chapter is preceded by a table of 300 K bulk data, which also repeats the most basic properties of elemental Si and Ge for comparison.

Why are power rectifiers made of SI instead of GE?

This is a VERY limiting factor and is the reason why power rectifiers are made of Si. This is the biggest difference between the Ge and Si diodes, even when some people think that is the threshold voltage. The relatively small maximum working temperature greatly restricted the use of Ge in favor of Si.