Thermally stable SiC MESFET with iridium oxide gate electrode

Thermally stable SiC MESFET using iridium-oxide (IrO/sub 2/) gate contact has been demonstrated and compared with conventionally used Ni Schottky contact. It was found that the IrO/sub 2/ Schottky contact is thermally stable and no distinct change of device performances was observed even after annealing at 450(degree)C for 15 h. This is because the IrO/sub 2/ suppressed the interdiffusion of the contact metals into the SiC substrate. It is suggested that IrO/sub 2/ is a promising candidate as gate electrode for high-temperature SiC MESFETs.