Effects of Thermal-Carrier Heat Conduction upon the Carrier Transport and the Drain Current Characteristics of Submicron GaAs MESFETs

A 2-dimensional numerical analysis is presented for thermal-electron heat conduction effects upon the electron transport and the drain current-voltage characteristics of submicron GaAs MESFETs, based on the use of a nonstationary hydrodynamic transport model. It is shown that for submicron GaAs MESFETs, electron heat conduction effects are significant on their internal electronic properties and also drain current-voltage characteristics. Due to electron heat conduction effects, the electron energy is greatly one-djmensionalized over the entire device region. Also, the drain current decreases continuously with increasing thermal conductivity in the saturation region of large drain voltages above 1 V. However, the opposite trend is observed in the linear region of small drain voltages below 1 V. Accordingly, for a large thermal conductivity, negative differential resistance drain current characteristics are observed with a pronounced peak of current at the drain voltage of 1 V. On the contrary, for zero thermal conductivity, a Gunn oscillation characteristic is observed at drain voltages above 2 V under a zero gate bias condition.