Electrothermal simulation of the self-heating effects in 4H-SiC MESFETs

A thermal model of 4H-SiC MESFET is developed based on the temperature dependences of material parameters and three-region I - V model. The static current characteristics of 4H-SiC MESFET have been obtained with the consideration of the self-heating effect on related parameters including electron mobility, saturation velocity and thermal conductivity. High voltage performances are analysed using equivalent thermal conductivity model. Using the physicalbased simulations, we studied the dependence of self-heating temperature on the thickness and doping of substrate. The obtained results can be used for optimization of the thermal design of the SiC-based high-power field effect transistors.