Trap-free process and thermal limitations on large-periphery SiC MESFET for RF and microwave power

Author

Villard, Frédéric ; Prigent, J.-P. ; Morvan, E. ; Dua, C. ; Brylinski, C. ; Temcamani, F. ; Pouvil, P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Radio CIME, Commun. & Micro-Wave Lab., Cergy-Pontoise, France

Volume

51

Issue

4

fYear

2003

fDate

4/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1129

Lastpage

1134

Abstract

In this paper, we present recent results on an SiC MESFET and we describe two of the main limitation mechanisms encountered: the self-heating and the trapping effects. Results on recent MESFET devices processed by THALES Research and Technology (TRT), Colombes, France, show that the trapping effects has been solved by using epitaxial layers on a higher purity 4H-SiC semi-insulating substrate sample made with a new technique by Okmetic, Vantaa, Finland. The association of two chips in the same case showed that the main limitation mechanism for power density originates from self-heating effects, which could be solved by optimizing the chip layout. 37.8-W output power at 500 MHz, 1.78-W/mm power density, and 35-dB third-order intermodulation-distortion ratio are the best obtained performances. An experimental analysis of trapping and self-heating effects on large-periphery SiC MESFETs is proposed in this paper.

Keywords

intermodulation distortion; microwave field effect transistors; microwave power transistors; power MESFET; semiconductor epitaxial layers; silicon compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; 37.8 W; 4H-SiC semi-insulating substrate; 500 MHz; RF power; SiC; epitaxial layer; large-periphery SiC MESFET; microwave power; output power; power density; self-heating effect; thermal effects; third-order intermodulation distortion ratio; trapping effect; wide band gap material; Breakdown voltage; Epitaxial layers; GSM; High power microwave generation; Laboratories; MESFETs; Power generation; Radio frequency; Silicon carbide; Thermal conductivity;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2003.809678

Filename

1193121