Silicon Carbide Microwave Transistors and Amplifiers

Abstract: Ibis work deals with silicon carbide (SiC) metal semieonduetor field effect transistors (MESFETs) and microwave amplifiers using them. The wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors silicon carbide and gallium nitride have a large potential for microwave power generation. The high power density combined with the comparably high impedance attainable by devices in these materials also offers new possibilities for wideband high power microwave systems. To realise these possibilities we need transistors that are well understood and optimised and amplifier designs that take advantage of the broadband possibilities offered by the transistors.We have developed and used physical drift-diffusion simulation models for SiC MESFETs. The simulation results showed a large influence of the doping and thickness of the channel and buffer layers, and the properties of the semi-insulating substrate on the DC and small signal device performance. A comparison between the physical simulations and measured device characteristics has also been carried out. A novel and efficient way to extend the physical simulations to the large signal high frequency domain has been developed. The method was used to investigate experimentally detected problems in the dynamies of the transistors during large signal operation and to further optimise the device structure.In this work a number of broadband SiC MESFET amplifiers were designed, fabricated and characterized. The packaging and charaeterisation of transistors is described and the design and characterisation of the amplifiers are presented.A 100-500 MHz amplifier showed a measured output power above 20 W and gain >15 dB across the band and a peak power of 26 W at 400 MHz, corresponding to a power density of 5.2 W/mm, with an associated power added efficiency (PAE) of 46 %. A 0.8-2 GHz feedback amplifier showed a measured output power above 5 W, gain >7 dB and PAE above 15 % across the band. A two stage 2.8-3.3 GHz amplifier had a maximum measured output power of 12.6 W with 22 dB gain and 9% PAE measured at 2.8 GHz. These results clearly show that SiC devices have a large potential for microwave power amplifiers in general and broadband amplifiers in particular.