Electronic and optical devices fabricated from wide band gap semiconductors have many properties ideal for high temperature, high frequency, high power, and radiation hard applications. Progress in wide band gap semiconductor materials growth has been impressive and high quality epitaxial layers are becoming available. Useful devices, particularly those fabricated from SiC, are rapidly approaching the commercialization stage. In particular, MESFETs (MEtal Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors) fabricated from wide band gap semiconductors have the potential to be useful in microwave power amplifier and oscillator applications. In this work the microwave performance of MESFETs fabricated from SiC, GaN and semiconducting diamond is investigated with a theoretical simulator and the results compared to experimental measurements. Excellent agreement between the simulated and measured data is obtained. It is demonstrated that microwave power amplifiers fabricated from these semiconductors offer superior performance, particularly at elevated temperatures compared to similar components fabricated from the commonly employed GaAs MESFETs.
