Silicon carbide (SiC), a material long known with potential for high-temperature, high-power, high-frequency, and radiation hardened applications, has emerged as the most mature of the wide-bandgap (2.0 eV ≲ Eg ≲ 7.0 eV) semiconductors since the release of commercial 6HSiC bulk substrates in 1991 and 4HSiC substrates in 1994. Following a brief introduction to SiC material properties, the status of SiC in terms of bulk crystal growth, unit device fabrication processes, device performance, circuits and sensors is discussed. Emphasis is placed upon demonstrated high-temperature applications, such as power transistors and rectifiers, turbine engine combustion monitoring, temperature sensors, analog and digital circuitry, flame detectors, and accelerometers. While individual device performances have been impressive (e.g. 4HSiC MESFETs with fmax of 42 GHz and over 2.8 W mm−1 power density; 4HSiC static induction transistors with 225 W power output at 600 MHz, 47% power added efficiency (PAE), and 200 V forward blocking voltage), material defects in SiC, in particular micropipe defects, remain the primary impediment to wide-spread application in commercial markets. Micropipe defect densities have been reduced from near the 1000 cm−2 order of magnitude in 1992 to 3.5 cm−2 at the research level in 1995.

Status of silicon carbide (SiC) as a wide-bandgap semiconductor for high-temperature applications: A review

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of silicon carbide (SiC) onto SiC{0001} substrates and its device applications are reviewed. Polytype-controlled epitaxial growth of SiC, which utilizes step-flow growth on off-oriented SiC{0001} substrates (step-controlled epitaxy), is proposed, and the detailed growth mechanism is discussed. In step-controlled epitaxy, SiC growth is controlled by the diffusion of reactants in a stagnant layer. Critical growth conditions where the growth mode changes from step-flow to two-dimensional nucleation are predicted as a function of growth conditions using a model describing SiC growth on vicinal {0001} substrates. Step bunching on the surfaces of SiC epilayers, nucleation, and step-dynamics are also investigated. The high quality of SiC epilayers was elucidated through low-temperature photoluminescence, Hall effect, and deep level measurements. Excellent doping controllability over a wide range was obtained by in situ doping of a nitrogen donor and aluminum/boron acceptors. Recent progress in SiC device fabrication using step-controlled epitaxial layers is presented. The intrinsic potential of SiC is demonstrated in the excellent performance of high-power, high-frequency, and high-temperature devices, which will develop novel electronics.

Step-controlled epitaxial growth of SiC: High quality homoepitaxy

In recent years, silicon carbide has received increased attention because of its potential for high-power devices. The unique material properties of SiC, high electric breakdown field, high saturated electron drift velocity, and high thermal conductivity are what give this material its tremendous potential in the power device arena. 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes (1400 V) with forward current densities over 700 A/cm/sup 2/ at 2 V have been demonstrated. Packaged SITs have produced 57 W of output power at 500 MHz, SiC UMOSFETs (1200 V) are projected to have 15 times the current density of Si IGBTs (1200 V). Submicron gate length 4H-SiC MESFETs have achieved f/sub max/=32 GHz, f/sub T/=14.0 GHz, and power density=2.8 W/mm @ 1.8 GHz. The performances of a wide variety of SiC devices are compared to that of similar Si and GaAs devices and to theoretically expected results.

Silicon carbide high-power devices

High-power device technology is a key technological factor for wireless communication, which is one of the information network infrastructures in the 21st century, as well as power electronics innovation, which contributes considerably to solving the energy saving problem in the future energy network. Widegap semiconductors, such as SiC and GaN, are strongly expected as high-power high-frequency devices and high-power switching devices owing to their material properties. In this paper, the present status and future prospect of these widegap semiconductor high-power devices are reviewed, in the context of applications in wireless communication and power electronics.

/pdf/present-status-and-future-prospect-of-widegap-semiconductor-331khupory.pdf

Present Status and Future Prospect of Widegap Semiconductor High-Power Devices

The current state of wide bandgap device technology is reviewed and its impact on power electronic system miniaturization for a wide variety of voltage levels is described. A synopsis of recent complementary technological developments in passives, integrated driver, and protection circuitry and electronic packaging are described, followed by an outline of the applications that stand to be impacted. A glimpse into the future based on the current technological trends is offered.

Wide Bandgap Technologies and Their Implications on Miniaturizing Power Electronic Systems

Large diameter 6H-SiC for microwave device applications

A realistic performance projection of 4H-SiC UMOSFET structures based on electric field in the gate insulator consistent with long-term reliability of insulator is provided for the breakdown voltage in the range of 600 to 1500 V. The use of P/sup +/ polysilicon gate leads to higher breakdown voltage as the Fowler Nordheim injection from the gate electrode is reduced. It is concluded that the insulator reliability is the limiting factor and therefore the high temperature operation of these devices may not be practical.

A critical look at the performance advantages and limitations of 4H-SiC power UMOSFET structures

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is an emerging semiconductor material which has been widely predicted to be superior to both Si and GaAs in the areas of microwave power devices, power electronic switching devices, high temperature analog and digital electronics, non-volatile memories and UV sensors. This paper presents an overview of SiC electronic properties, current status of the bulk and epitaxial material growth, and characteristics of the recently fabricated devices in some of the above device categories. The first application of silicon carbide in high power pulsed amplifiers at UHF and S-Band frequencies is described.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel3/4251/12029/00553573.pdf

SiC electronics

State-of-the art SiC MESFET's showing a record high f/sub max/ of 26 GHz and RF gain of 8.5 dB at 10 GHz are described in this paper. These results were obtained by using high-resistivity SiC substrates for the first time to minimize substrate parasitics. The fabrication and characterization of these devices are discussed. >

RF performance of SiC MESFET's on high resistivity substrates

Static induction transistors have been demonstrated in 4H-SiC. SiC specific semiconductor processing technologies such as epitaxy, reactive ion etching, and sidewall Schottky gates were employed. Under pulsed power test conditions, 4H-SiC SITs developed a maximum output power of 225 W at 600 MHz, a power added efficiency of 47%, and a gain of 8.7 dB. Maximum channel current was 1 A/cm, and the maximum blocking voltage was 200 V.

High power 4H-SiC static induction transistors

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

A.A. Burk

Author Tools

Chat about Author