Design of logic gates for high temperature and harsh radiation environment made of 4H-SiC MESFET

Abstract

Silicon carbide MESFETs are very attractive devices for high frequency applications, and communications. Progresses in the manufacturing of high quality SiC substrates open the possibility to new circuit applications. SiC unipolar transistors, such as JFETs and MESFETs have also a promising potential for digital integrated circuits operating at high temperature (HT) and/or in harsh environments. An increasing demand for HT compliant circuits comes from intelligent power management, automotive industry, and intelligent sensors for harsh environment, space and aerospace as well. The present work is a demonstration of logic gates design with normally-on 4H-SiC MESFET devices using HT Spice models extracted from experimental measurements. A complete library of functional HT logic gates allows the implementation of complex logic embedded in power management circuitry.