Fowler–Nordheim tunneling of holes through thermally grown silicon dioxide on 6H–silicon carbide is reported. Oxides of 5.2, 10, and 14.2 nm thickness were grown on thep+face of ap+nSiC junction. Thep+njunction served to separate the electron and hole tunneling currents. Hole tunneling was found to be the dominant current mechanism through the oxide. Fowler–Nordheim analysis, using a parabolicE–Krelationship, was performed to extract a barrier height–effective mass product,&Fgr;B3/2(mox/m0)1/2,for electrons and holes of2.88&percent;±4.9&percent;and2.38&percent;±3.8&percent;(V3/2)respectively. An estimate for the effective mass of holes within the oxide was made using both the parabolic and Franz dispersion relations. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.