As a new power electronic device, silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET has unique electrical characteristics in comparison with Si IGBT, but its static performances and parasitic characteristics in a wide temperature range are still unclear. This paper concentrates on SiC MOSFET and compares with Si IGBT. Based on the working principles of these two kinds of devices, the characteristics affected by temperature are analyzed, and these characteristics including threshold voltage, conduction resistance, leakage current, output characteristics and body diode characteristics have also been accurately measured with junction temperature changing from -55°C to 165°C. The experimental results are shown to be in consistence with previous theoretical analysis. Built on the experiment results, this paper further studies the temperature sensitivity of all these performance parameters, and it is found that the static performance and parasitic characteristics of a SiC MOSFET strongly rely on temperature, and this can be more pronounced than in the case of a Si IGBT. This characteristic provides the theoretical basis for measuring device junction temperature and condition monitoring for SiC MOSFET-based power electronics systems.