New 4H silicon carbide metal semiconductor field-effect transistor with a buffer layer between the gate and the channel layer

A new 4H silicon carbide metal semiconductor field-effect transistor (4H-SiC MESFET) structure with a buffer layer between the gate and the channel layer is proposed in this paper for high power microwave applications. The physics-based analytical models for calculating the performance of the proposed device are obtained by solving one- and two-dimensional Poisson's equations. In the models, we take into account not only two regions under the gate but also a third high field region between the gate and the drain which is usually omitted. The direct-current and the alternating-current performances for the proposed 4H-SiC MESFET with a buffer layer of 0.2 μ m are calculated. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The current is larger than that of the conventional structure. The cutoff frequency (f_T) and the maximum oscillation frequency (f_max) are 20.4 GHz and 101.6 GHz, respectively, which are higher than 7.8 GHz and 45.3 GHz of the conventional structure. Therefore, the proposed 4H-SiC MESFET structure has better power and microwave performances than the conventional structure.