Amplifying element and manufacturing method thereof
View Patent ↗An amplifier integrated circuit element or J-FET is used for impedance conversion and amplification of ECM. The amplifier integrated circuit element has advantages of allowing an appropriate gain to be set by adjusting a circuit constant, and of producing a higher gain than the J-FET; but also has a problem of having a complicated circuit configuration and requiring high costs. Using only the J-FET has also problems of outputting a voltage insufficiently amplified and producing a low gain. Against this background, provided is a discrete element in which: a J-FET and a bipolar transistor are integrated on one chip; a source region of the J-FET is connected to a base region of the bipolar transistor; and a drain region of the J-FET is connected to a collector region of the bipolar transistor. Accordingly, an ECM amplifying element with high input impedance and low output impedance can be achieved.
1. An amplifying element to be connected to an electret condenser microphone, comprising:
a semiconductor substrate of a first general conductivity type;
a semiconductor layer of the first general conductivity type formed on the semiconductor substrate;
a junction field effect transistor formed on the semiconductor substrate and comprising a back gate diffusion region of a second general conductivity type formed in the semiconductor layer, a back gate contact region of the second general conductivity type formed in the back gate diffusion region, a channel region of the first general conductivity type formed in the back gate diffusion region, a source region and a drain region of the first general conductivity type that are formed in the channel region, and a top gate region of the second general conductivity type formed in the channel region; and
a bipolar transistor formed on the semiconductor substrate, using the semiconductor substrate and the semiconductor layer as a collector region and comprising a base region of the second general conductivity type formed in the semiconductor layer, and an emitter region of the first general conductivity type formed in the base region,
wherein the source region is electrically connected to the base region, and the drain region is electrically connected to the collector region.
2. The amplifying element of claim 1 , wherein an area occupied by the junction field effect transistor is smaller than an area occupied by the bipolar transistor.
3. The amplifying element of claim 2 , wherein the area occupied by the junction field effect transistor is smaller than the area occupied by the bipolar transistor by at least a ratio of 1 to 10.
4. The amplifying element of claim 1 , wherein the junction field effect transistor comprises only one pair of the source region and the drain region.
5. The amplifying element of claim 1 , further comprising a first electrode layer in contact with the back gate contact region and the top gate region, a second electrode layer in contact with the emitter region and a third electrode layer formed on a back surface of the semiconductor substrate.
6. The amplifying element of claim 1 , further comprising a collector extraction region of the first general conductivity type formed in the semiconductor layer, and a collector extraction contact region of the first general conductivity type formed in the collector extraction region.
7. The amplifying element of claim 6 , further comprising a first wiring layer in contact with the drain region and the collector extraction contact region, and a second wiring layer in contact with the source region and the base region.
8. An electret condenser microphone system comprising:
an electret condenser microphone comprising a first terminal and a second terminal;
an amplifying element comprising a semiconductor substrate, a junction field effect transistor formed on the semiconductor substrate and a bipolar transistor formed on the semiconductor substrate, the first terminal of the electret condenser microphone being connected to a gate of the junction filed effect transistor, a source of the junction field effect transistor being connected to a base of the bipolar transistor, and a drain of the junction filed effect transistor being connected to a collector of the bipolar transistor; and
a load resistor connected to the collector of the bipolar transistor.
9. The electret condenser microphone system of claim 8 , wherein the second terminal of the electret condenser microphone and an emitter of the bipolar transistor are connected to a reference voltage.
10. The electret condenser microphone system of claim 8 , wherein the second terminal of the electret condenser microphone is connected to a reference voltage, and an emitter of the bipolar transistor is connected to a power source.