SiC field effect transistor technology demonstrating prolonged stable operation at 500 °C

While there have been numerous reports of short-term transistor operation at 500 degrees C or above, these devices have previously not demonstrated sufficient long-term operational durability at 500 degrees C to be considered viable for most envisioned applications. This paper reports the development of SiC field effect transistors capable of long-term electrical operation at 500 degrees C. A 6H-SiC MESFET was packaged and subjected to continuous electrical operation while residing in a 500 degrees C oven in oxidizing air atmosphere for over 2400 hours. The transistor gain, saturation current (loss), and on-resistance (R-DS) changed by less than 20% from initial values throughout the duration of the biased 500 degrees C test. Another high-temperature packaged 6H-SiC MESFET was employed to form a simple one-stage high-temperature low-frequency voltage amplifier. This single-stage common-source amplifier demonstrated stable continuous electrical operation (negligible changes to gain and operating biases) for over 600 hours while residing in a 500 degrees C air ambient oven. In both cases, increased leakage from annealing of the Schottky gate-to-channel diode was the dominant transistor degradation mechanism that limited the duration of 500 degrees C electrical operation.