Knowledge

5-5-5 SiC Insulators: Thermal Oxides and MOS Technology

5-5-5 SiC Insulators: Thermal Oxides and MOS Technology The vast majority of semiconductor-integrated circuit chips in use today rely on silicon metal-oxide– semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), whose electronic advantages and operational device physics are summarized in Katsumata’s chapter and elsewhere . Given the extreme usefulness and success of inversion channel MOSFET-based electronics in [...]

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5-5-6 SiC Device Packaging and System Considerations

5-5-6 SiC Device Packaging and System Considerations Hostile-environment SiC semiconductor devices and ICs are of little advantage if they cannot be reliably packaged and connected to form a complete system capable of hostile-environment operation. With proper material selection, modifications of existing IC packaging technologies appear feasible for nonpower SiC circuit [...]

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5-6 SiC Electronic Devices and Circuits

5-6 SiC Electronic Devices and Circuits This section briefly summarizes a variety of SiC electronic device designs broken down by major application areas. SiC process and material technology issues limiting the capabilities of various SiC device topologies are highlighted as key issues to be addressed in further SiC technology maturation. [...]

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5-6-1 SiC Optoelectronic Devices

5-6-1 SiC Optoelectronic Devices The wide bandgap of SiC is useful for realizing short-wavelength blue and ultraviolet (UV) optoelectronics. 6H-SiC-based pn junction light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were the first semiconductor devices to cover the blue portion of the visible color spectrum, and became the first SiC-based devices to reach high-volume commercial sales . Because [...]

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5-6-2 SiC RF Devices

5-6-2 SiC RF Devices The main use of SiC RF devices appears to lie in high-frequency solid-state high-power amplification at frequencies from around 600 MHz (UHF-band) to perhaps as high as a few gigahertz (X-band). As discussed in far greater detail in References 5, 6, 25, 26, 159, and elsewhere, [...]

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5-6-3 SiC High-Temperature Signal-Level Devices

Most analog signal conditioning and digital logic circuits are considered “signal level” in that individual transistors in these circuits do not typically require any more than a few milliamperes of current and <20 V to function properly. Commercially available silicon-on-insulator circuits can perform complex digital and analog signal-level functions up to 300°C [...]

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5-6-4 SiC High-Power Switching Devices

5-6-4 SiC High-Power Switching Devices The inherent material properties and basic physics behind the large theoretical benefits of SiC over silicon for power switching devices were discussed Section 5.3.2. Similarly, it was discussed in Section 5.4.5 that crystallographic defects found in SiC wafers and epilayers are presently a primary factor [...]

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5-6-4-1 SiC High-Power Rectifiers

5-6-4-1 SiC High-Power Rectifiers The high-power diode rectifier is a critical building block of power conversion circuits. Recent reviews of experimental SiC rectifier results are given in References 3, 134, 172, 180, and 181. Most important SiC diode rectifier device design trade-offs roughly parallel well-known silicon rectifier trade-offs, except for [...]

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5-6-4-1-1 SiC Schottky Power Rectifiers.

5-6-4-1-1 SiC Schottky Power Rectifiers. 4H-SiC power Schottky diodes (with rated blocking voltages up to 1200 V and rated on-state currents up to 20 A as of this writing) are now commercially available . The basic structure of these unipolar diodes is a patterned metal Schottky anode contact residing on [...]

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5-6-4-1-2 Bipolar and Hybrid Power Rectifiers

5-6-4-1-2 Bipolar and Hybrid Power Rectifiers For higher voltage applications, bipolar minority carrier charge injection (i.e., conductivity modulation) should enable SiC pn diodes to carry higher current densities than unipolar Schottky diodes whose drift regions conduct solely using dopant-atom majority carriers . Consistent with silicon rectifier experience, SiC pn junction [...]

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