High speed static induction transistor for pulsed power applications

The proposed design and fabrication of a recessed-gate GaAs static induction transistor (SIT) are reported. The SIT is a vertical channel, field-effect switching device which exhibits gate-induced turn-on and turn-off and is well-suited for pulsed power applications. Modeling of the device has been performed to correlate the experimentally observed characteristics with calculated values upon fabrication. The base (channel) layer is grown by vapor phase epitaxy, and the dopant concentration and thickness of this layer are designed to achieve optimum device characteristics. The current risetime in the SIT is limited by the rate of decrease of the potential barrier in the channel as well as the transit time of carriers from the source to the drain region of the device. In this case, assuming that electrons travel across the drift region at saturation velocity, the transit time is calculated to be <500 ps