The intent of the present work is to analyze device degradation and reliability in terms of their microscopic origins. The base-emitter junction of the advanced, “double-poly”, self-aligned bipolar transistor contacts the SiO2 sidewall spacer. During normal circuit operation, the base-emitter junction experiences a reverse bias which as a stress in time degrades the current gain of the transistor. Both a decrease of the gain, as well as an increase in the noise are observed. The forward base current increase as a function of stress time follows △IB ∼ tn. We present evidence that the defects are occurring at the Si-Si02 interface from perimeter to area comparisons. The weak temperature dependence of the forward base current in degraded transistors shows that trap-assisted tunneling current through the Si-SiO2 interface states is involved. The random-telegraph-signals observed for the first time in a silicon bipolar transistor are a direct identification of damage at the Si-SiO2 interface. 2D simulation of the potential and field near the interface allows us to show that damage can be expected.