Recent trends in silicon carbide device research

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) has revolutionised semiconductor power device performance. It is a wide band gap semiconductor with an energy gap wider than 2eV and possesses extremely high power, high voltage switching characteristics and high thermal, chemical and mechanical stability. The SiC wafers are available in 6H, 4H, 2H and 3C polytypes. Because of its wide band gap, the leakage current of SiC is many orders of magnitude lower than that of silicon. Also, forward resistance of SiC power devices is approximately 200 times lower than that of conventional silicon devices. The breakdown voltage of SiC is 8-10 times higher than that of silicon. In this paper, silicon carbide Schottky barrier diodes, power MOSFETs, UMOSFET, lateral power MOSFET, SIT (static induction transistor), and nonvolatile memories are discussed along with their characteristics and applications.

Keywords

• silicon carbide
• power MOSFET
• SIT
• nonvolatile memory