A theoretical study on the temperature-dependent RF performance of a SiC MESFET

The impact of ambient temperature on the drain current of a SiC Metal-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MESFET) has been studied theoretically assuming the device is operating under two-region model. This study has been extended to explore the effect of temperature on other device parameters i.e. drain resistance, mutual conductance, cut-off frequency and maximum operating frequency. It is observed that the overall performance of the device in terms of these parameters degrades as the device temperature is enhanced. In addition, the device performance is also studied incorporating self-heating effect applicable at higher drain field. The results calculated using this work are compared with the experimental data reported earlier and a good agreement has been found.