Mar. 2007 J ournal of Electronic Science and Technology of China Vol.5 No.

1

Advanced SPICE-Modeling of 4H-SiC MESFETs


XU Yue-hang, XU Rui-min, YAN Bo, WANG Lei


School of Electronic Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Chengdu 610054 China

Abstract A modified drain source current suitable for simulation program with integrated
circuit emphasis (SPICE) simulations of SiC MESFETs is presented in this paper. Accurate
modeling of SiC MESFET is achieved by introducing three parameters in Triquints own model
(TOM). The model, which is single piece and continuously differentiable, is verified by measured
direct current (DC) I-V curves and scattering parameters (up to 20

GHz).
Key words 4H-SiC MESFET; large signal model; simulation program with integrated
circuit emphasis (SPICE)


Received 2006-06-10
4H-SiC FETs is one of the most promising
devices for high-power, high-temperature and high
frequency applications because of 4H-SiCs superior
properties, such as high breakdown voltage, high
thermal conductivity, and high saturated electron
velocity
[1]
. SiC MESFETs have been fabricated with a
power density of 7.2W/mm
[2]
, and its the maximum
operating frequency has been up to 20GHz
[3]
. Products
working at S-band with 60W output power have been
made by Cree Inc. However, researches on SiC
material and related devices are still on the early stage
in China.
The development of SiC devices in wireless
applications provides the impetus of researching in the
area of large signal modeling. The SiC MESFET large
signal modeling is different from GaAs MESFETs in
dissimilar velocity-field relationship, self-heating
effects, and the characteristics of dopants. So most of
the models developed for GaAs MESFETs should be
modified when applied to SiC MESFETs. The previous
works mainly focus on physical and table based
models
[3-5]
, which are complex and time-consuming.
Empirical models are more simple and easier to
implement in CAD tools with harmonic balance (HB)
simulations. In this work, we propose an accurate
model to describe the static characteristics of SiC
MESFET based on civil processing line. Experimental
results validate the good performance of the model.
1 Device Descriptions
The MESFET structure consists of a cap layer, a
channel layer, and a buffer layer on a semi-insulated
4H-SiC substrate, as shown in Fig.1. The buffer layer
can prevent damage and deep level impurities in the
substrate from the active layer. Due to the lack of
p-doping source at the moment, we use an
unintentionally n-type layer as the buffer in order to
minimize the influence of substrate.

Cap: ,0.15m
15 3
5 10 cm

Channel: ,0.35m
17 3
1.7 10 cm

Buffer: unintentionally n-type doping

15 3
1.5 10 cm

,2m
Semi-insulated 4H-SiC substrate





Fig.1 Schematic of SiC MESFET structure
2 Drain Current Modeling
Triquints own model (TOM)
[6]
is used as a basis
for our drain current model. TOM is popular because it
can accurately fit the direct current (DC) behavior of
the MESFET. It predicts the negative output
conductance at high dissipated power region. Manohar
have already proposed a modified model suitable for
SiC MESFET based on TOM, and the channel current
(I
ds
) equations is given by
[7]
:
gs to
ds
ds
ds gs to gs to
( )
tanh( )
(1 ( ) ) ( )
Q
Q m
V V
V
I
V V V V V

=
+
(1)
to to1 ds
V V V = + (2)
where , , , Q, m, V
to1
, and are (constant) model
parameters. The feed back term is used to describe
the drop of I
ds
at high drain voltage due to self-heating
at DC, Q is necessary for the non-square-law
dependence of I
ds
, and V
to1
represent threshold voltage.
The fundamental modification to the TOM I
ds
channel
current equation in Manohar model is the inclusion of
in the denominator of the hyperbolic
gs to
(V V )
m
No.1 XU Yue-hang, et al.: Advanced SPICE-Modeling of 4H-SiC MESFET 63
tangent term. The induced parameter m is account for
the power law function of knee voltage locus. This also
has been seen by our experiment, and the DC model
above can greatly improve the fitting I-V curves in
knee voltage locus.
However, Manohar model is failed to describe the
decreasing static transconductance with high
gate-source voltage (V
gs
) at saturation region in the I-V
curves, which caused by self-heating and complex
velocity-field relationship
[5]
. And it is also failed to
describe the non-constant conductance at the linear
region, which is due to the reciprocity of self-heating
and the unionized dopants. The effects of self-heating
and the deep-levels impurities in SiC material are
accurately modeled using the following advanced
TOM:
gs to
ds ds
ds
ds gs to gs to
( )
(
tanh( )
(1 ( ) ) ( )
2
Q
Q
Q m
V V
V V
I
V V V V V

+
=
+
)
(3)
1
0 gs to
(1 ( ) )
Q
Q Q V V = (4)
to to1 ds
V V V = + (5)
where Q
1
is the peak transconductance parameter and
Q
2
is the nonlinear conductance parameter. To best
show the functions of new parameters Q
1
and Q
2
, a
model (referred as simplified advanced TOM) without
term in Eq.(3) is also proposed:
2
ds
Q
V
gs to
ds
ds
ds gs to gs to
( )
tanh( )
(1 ( ) ) ( )
Q
Q m
V V
V
I
V V V V V

=
+
(6)
The expression of Q and V
to
are showed in Eqs.(4) and
(5), respectively.
3 Large Signal Modeling and Model
Verification
The DC and scattering parameter (S-parameter)
measurements were taken by on-wafer system. The
small signal equivalent circuit model is extracted using
the conventional cold FET method
[8]
. All the parasitic
elements values are kept constant in the large signal
model. The extracted parasitic elements values of SiC
MESFET (neglecting the small parasitic capacitances
C
pd
and C
pg
) are listed in Tab.1.
The model parameters for micrometer gate-length
on-wafer MESFET device are extracted for the TOM
[6]
,
Manohar model, advanced TOM, and simplified
advanced TOM. These results are clearly plotted in
Fig.2, together with the measured data. As the
self-heating and deep level impurities of SiC material
mainly influence the region of high power dissipation,
the parameters fitting well with the region of small I
ds

are used for comparison purpose.
Tab.1 Extracted parasitic elements values of SiC
MESFET (gate-length: 1

m, gate-width: 300
m) biased at V
ds
=20

V, V
gs
=

6

V
R
s
/ R
d
/ R
g
/ L L
s
/pH
d
/pH L
g
/pH
0.3 1.6 3 6.7 56.6 42
























Fig.2 Measured and modeled DC I-V curves with
different models.
0.10
I
d
s

/

A

0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 5 10 15 20
V
ds
/

V
(a) TOM
* * * * Measured
Modeled
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 5 10 15 20
V
ds
/

V
(b) Mahonar model

A

* * * * Measured
Modeled
I
d
s

/
0.10
I
d
s

/

A

0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 5 10 15 20
* * * * Measured
Modeled
V
ds
/

V
(c) Simplified advanced TOM
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 5 10 15 20
V
ds
/

V
(d) Advanced TOM

A

* * * * Measured
Modeled
d
s

/
I
J ournal of Electronic Science and Technology of China Vol.5 64
As observed from Fig.2, the fitting error of TOM
gnificant in the li
is
quite si near, knee, and saturation
re
at four
bi
ifferent biases.
The topolo the gn odel is
shown in Fig.3. Using multi-bias S parameters, the gate
ca
T biased at V
ds
=20

V, V
gs
=-6

V
gions, especially as I
ds
is large. Manohar model
offers an improvement over the TOM, especially in the
knee. But the fitting of the large I
ds
region is still poor.
Both advanced TOM and simplified advanced TOM
give very good accurate in the knee and saturation
regions. And the simplified advanced TOM is poor in
fitting the linear region of high back-ward V
gs
as we
expected. The comparison results also make the
physical meaning of new induced parameters clear. It
should be noted that the aim of proposing the
simplified advanced TOM is also for its simplicity in
practical design, and it is more suitable for designing
SiC MESFETs devices like power amplifiers.
The RMS errors of three models are listed in Tab.2
for comparison. The calculation is carried out
as levels for V
gs
, while V
ds
change from 4V~20V. As
noted from Tab.2, the RMS errors of advanced TOM
are greatly improved compared to TOM and Manohar
model, especially at high V
gs
.
Tab.2 Comparisons of RMS error of advanced TOM,
TOM, and Manohar model at d
basic gy of large si al m
pacitors are extracted at each bias condition and the
nonlinear capacitors (C
gs
and C
gd
) are modeled by Statz
model
[9]
. The advanced TOM has been implemented
into the commercial microwave software Agilent
advanced design system (ADS). A simple external RC
network is used in the circuit in order to account for
frequency dispersion of the output conductance. All
the large signal model parameters are extracted by
in-house program running under MATLAB and
presented in Tab.3.
Tab.3 The extracted large signal model parameters of
a SiC MESFE
V
to1
/V m Q
0

14.4 1.6 0.71 5.510
4
0.015 2.003
Q
1
Q
2

gs
F C
gd
F C C
o
/p
o
/p
ds
/pF
1.79 1.44 0.076 0.499 0.02 2.67


V
gs
=


Fig.4 mbol line)
ency range:
50MHz~
4 Co
An improved channel current description for
ed. This model shows more
univ
V
ds


ig.3 Nonlinear equivalent circuit model for the SiC MESFET
The modeled and measured S parameters at two





C
rf
F
different biases (V
ds
=20V, V
gs
=-2V and V
ds
=20V,

-6V) are shown in Fig.4, respectively. One may
notices from the plots that S
21
is less than one. This is
caused by the mismatch between 50 input network
analyzer and the high input impedance of the devices.










(a) Biased at V
ds
=20V, V
gs
=-2V










(b) Biased V
ds
=20V,

V
gs
=-6 V
Measured (solid line) and modeled (sy
S-parameters at two diffetent bias. frequ

nclusions
20GHz
4H-SiC MESFET is propos
ersal for modeling SiC MESFET in different
processing line. A complete empirical model is
V
gs
/V and
=4~20V
Advanced
TOM /(%)
TOM
/(%)
Manohar
Model /(%)
0 0.87 59.8 25.1
-1.5 1.60 44.2 17.9
I
gd
R
d
L
d
- 6.0 0.71 8.8 5.6
-12.0 9.60 10.3 14.9
I
gs
pg
R
G
gs
C
gs
C
gd

I
ds
R
i

R
s
L
s
R
rf
C
pd
C
ds
S
21
S
12
S
22
S
11

S
21
S
12
S
22
S
11
C
g
L
g Gate ain
Soure
Dr

No.1 XU Yue-hang, et al.: Advanced SPICE-Modeling of 4H-SiC MESFET 65
iss Wu Yun-qiu for
er. In addition, the
auth
[1] CHARLES E W. Comparison of SiC, GaAs, and Si RF
. IEEE Transaction on Electron
[3]
[5]
[6]
[7]
implemented in ADS and the validity of the model is
verified by measured I-V curves and S parameters at
two different biases. In the future work, SiC MESFETs
with different gate-widths will be studied for scalable
large signal modeling including self-heating effects.
5 Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank M
her help in preparing this pap
ors are grateful to the whole team of co-workers in
Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute, Shijiazhuang,
China.

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Brief Introduction to Author(s)
XU Yue-hang () was born in Zhejiang Province,
China, in 1981. He received the B.E. degree in electromagnetic
and microwave techniques from the University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, in 2004.
He is currently pursuing the M.S. degree in electromagnetic and
microwave techniques with UESTC. His research interests
include nonlinear modeling of SiC MESFET devices,
microwave-millimeter circuits and MMIC design.
XU Rui-min () was born in Sichuan Province,
China, in 1958. He received the B.E. and M.S. degrees in
electromagnetic and microwave techniques from UESTC,
Chengdu, in 1982 and 1987. He is currently a professor with
UESTC. His current research interests include microwave and
millimeter-wave technologies and applications, and radar
systems.
YAN Bo ( ) was born in Sichuan Province, China, in
1970. He received the Ph.D. degree in electromagnetic and
microwave techniques from UESTC in 1998. He is currently an
associate professor with UESTC. His current research interests
include microwave and millimeter-wave technologies and
applications.
WANG Lei ( ) was born in Guangdong Province,
China, in 1979. He received the B.E. degree from UESTC in
2002. His current research interests include microwave and
millimeter-wave technologies and applications, and MMIC
design.