Research and Development on Advanced Silicon Carbide Thin Film Growth Techniques and Fabrication of High Power and Microwave Frequency Silicon Carbide-Based Device Structures

Abstract

The RF operation of MESFETs and bipolar transistors fabricated from both alpha - and beta-SiC have been modeled. The results show that SiC has considerable promise for producing microwave power MESFETs with RF output power capability greater (approx. 4 times) than can be obtained with any of the commonly used semiconductors (e.g., GaAs). this due to the high breakdown field of SiC that allows high bias voltage to be applied. These device modeling efforts have been used as a guide to design a new MESFET mask set with a aS micron gate length and reduced gate pad area. For the first time, positive gain was observed for a SiC transistor at microwave frequencies. The highest values for Ft and Fmax were 2.9 GHz and 1.9 GHz, respectively. The highest current and power gains observed at 1.0 GHz were 8.5 dB and 7 db, respectively. Avalanche characteristics for a 6H-SiC IMPATT were observed for the first time. Heteroepitaxial growth of Ti on (0001) 6H-SiC has been achieved at room and elevated temperatures. Current voltage measurements display shifts toward ohmic behavior after annealing at 400 C. Molecular beam epitaxy equipment has been designed and commissioned.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA232160

Entities

People

  • Robert F Davis

Organizations

  • North Carolina State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Bipolar Junction Transistors
  • Chemical Analysis
  • Chemical Compounds
  • Chemistry
  • Epitaxial Growth
  • Fabrication
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Materials
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Metal-Semiconductor Junctions
  • Modules (Electronics)
  • Molecular Beam Epitaxy
  • Semiconductors
  • Silicon Carbide
  • Spectra
  • Spectrometry

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Electronics Engineering
  • Semiconductor Device Technology

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics