The potential of SiC and GaN for application in high speed devices

The potential for high frequency applications of MESFETs made from the wide band gap semiconductors cubic GaN, hexagonal GaN, and 3C-SiC has been investigated by means of device modeling. For comparison, also Si and GaAs MESFETs have been modeled. The influence of nonstationary carrier transport on FET behavior has been estimated using the relaxation time approximation, and taken into account. The three wide band gap semiconductors show considerable potential for application in high frequency MESFETs. Cut-off frequencies exceeding 100 GHz have been predicted for sub-quarter micron gate cubic GaN MESFETs.