| Although the wide band gap semiconductors have great potential for a host of device applications, little is presently known about their properties frustrating the evaluation of devices made from these materials. The lack of information about the wide band gap materials stems from their relative technological immaturity. Presently, high quality wide band gap semiconductor material is extremely difficult to reliably produce due to the lack of appropriate substrates, adequate control of the growth process and inexperience with these systems. Reliable experimental information covering the many wide band gap materials systems of interest is still very far away.; To help fill this information void, we have developed a new modeling technique that we refer to as materials theory based modeling. Using this approach, it is possible to obtain basic transport information directly from fundamental studies of the electronic band structure that ultimately enable device level simulation. As such, our approach enables the study of novel materials and polytypes and the prediction of their concomitant device behaviors with little input experimental data. Though these theoretical results are not definitive, they nevertheless provide an excellent means of assessing the potential and future promise of the wide band gap semiconductors in many device applications.; Of greatest interest in this particular study are the high field and breakdown characteristics of the wide band gap materials. Knowledge of this information enables the design, optimization, and evaluation of devices wherein breakdown is the limiting factor in the power-density performance. In this work, we report the first information about the breakdown properties of several wide band gap materials and their related polytypes, i.e., zinc sulfide (ZnS), cubic and 4H phase of silicon carbide (3C-SiC and 4H-SiC), and indium nitride (InN). |
