Electric-field dependence of electron drift velocity in 4H–SiC

•Pulsed I–V characteristics of 4H–SiC SBDs were measured at high forward biases.•Analytical formula is derived for electric-field dependence of electron velocity.•The value of saturation velocity has been obtained.

Room temperature isothermal forward current–voltage characteristics of mesa-epitaxial 4H–SiC Schottky diodes were measured at high electric fields (beyond 105 V/cm) in the 34-μm thick n-base doped at 1 × 1015 cm−3. The effect of diode self-heating on current was minimized when using single 4-ns pulses. The analytical formula was derived for the dependence of electron drift velocity on electric field along c-axis.