SiC Discretes

Manufacturer	JFETs	Schottkys	SJTs	MOSFETs

About Silicon Carbide SiC

For over 25 years Silicon as the worlds second most abundant element in the crust (after oxygen) has been used as the dominant semiconductor building block used for building bare die. Historically Silicon as opposed to SiC has been much more easily and cheaply modified from its natural state to a flexible and economically viable semiconductor building block, i.e. low defect structure wafers. Whereas SiC as an artificial semiconductor compound is a much more difficult and costly material from which to produce defect free wafers in volume for mass production. In addition to this several extra steps are required in the epitaxial process for SiC that are not required in a standard Silicon fabrication process. It's therefore no surprise that historically the roadblocks to SiC die usage are primarily cost driven. It's only recently when cost competitive and mass producible platforms designed specifically for fabricating semiconductor devices in SiC that the wholesale benefits of SiC as a semiconductor can be realised. Today this is resulting in the birth of higher performing replacements for structures already commonplace in Si such as  JFETs, Schottky Rectifiers, BJTs, Mosfets etc…

SiC used as a Power Semiconductor compound offers some very exciting possibilities and design advantages for the next generation of electronic power devices. The physical potential of SiC as a compound semiconductor is well known and documented, it has some very attractive properties that make it exceptionally suitable for Power electronics.

• High Temp Operation capability - Band gap Eg = 3x Si
• Low Ron & High BV (Critical breakdown field Ec = 10x Si)
• Fast operation (Electron velocity saturation vsat = 2x Si)
• High Thermal conductivity ( = 3x Si)

Today there is demand for greater energy efficiency, smaller size, greater power density and higher overall performance that is pushing the boundaries of Silicon as a power semiconductor element to its limit. The demand for advancement is now such that the relative cost in terms of process development and R&D needed to reliably squeeze higher performance out of a Silicon structure is increasing rapidly. Whilst in tandem long running R&D efforts in SiC semiconductor development which were originally driven and financed by military R&D are now beginning to yield results with exceptional device performances above and beyond Silicon and most importantly also by using a repeatable mass productionable process. SiC wafer fabrication advancements have also led to a reduction in the relative cost to make SiC raw material wafers and several key fab process enhancements are also driving up the yield of good die expected per wafer. The result is a cross over point in the balance of cost versus performance where Silicon will give way to a new material for specific applications that benefit from and require extra performance.  SiC can cater for a broad range of markets in hi-reliability and commercial such as military, aerospace, high temperature, industrial automation & green energy.

Benefit	Industry
	Down Hole	Avionics	Switched Power	Hybrid Electric Vehicles	Space
Hi-Temperature
Power Efficiency
Compact Size
Ruggedness
Radiation Resistance