This paper reports on the measured dc characteristics of a SiC JFET device from room temperature up to 450?C in order to evaluate the device's capability for high-temperature operation. The authors packaged SiC JFET bare die into a dedicated high-temperature package to be able to perform experiments under extremely high ambient temperatures. The experimental results show that the device can operate at 450?C, which is impossible for conventional Si devices, but the current capability of the SiC JFET diminishes with rising temperatures. For example, the saturation current becomes 20% at 450?C with respect to the value at the room temperature. © 2004, The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers. All rights reserved.