Silicon carbide MESFET devices are suitable for high-speed and high-power applications. In this paper we are studying thermal effects in 4H-SiC RF power devices. The simulations are based on a combination of 2D device simulations for the electrical transport, and 3D thermal simulations for the lattice heating. We show that the method gives good accuracy, efficiency, flexibility and capacity dealing with tasks, where a 2D coupled electrical-thermal simulation is not sufficient. We also present an improvement of Roschke and Schwierz mobility model, based on Monte Carlo simulations for the temperature dependencies of the mobility parameters beta and v(sat). (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.