(May 24, 2016) Recently, SiC (Silicon carbide) has been recognized as a material that can be “used for small signal electronics – such as analogue and mixed-signal devices – making possible the locating of monitoring and control circuitry much closer to heat sources” in the electronics industry, according to NewElectronics.co.uk.
“Research groups have been exploring various integrated circuit technologies, such as SiC NMOS or JFET based transistors,” NewElectronics reported, “Raytheon UK, for instance, has been developing a true CMOS technology with both PMOS and NMOS transistors integrated on the same substrate, interconnected with a refractory metal interconnect system. CMOS in SiC, which Raytheon calls HiTSiC, offers the benefits one would expect from a CMOS process, such as integration density and low current operation.”
“Progress in this field is encouraging, with the stability of HiTSiC NMOS transistors being at least as good as that of any SiC power device available on the open market, but work is continuing to optimise the PMOS transistors. This raises an interesting challenge, since both the NMOS and PMOS transistors are manufactured on the same substrate and the same processing steps are used. However, processing steps optimised for NMOS transistors do not necessarily produce optimum PMOS transistors, and vice versa,” reported NewElectronics.
NewElectronics adds, “Work is progressing on the development of complementary bipolar transistors integrated along with complementary MOS transistors. This work opens the door to developing precision analogue components which will operate at extremely high temperatures, integrated with conversion and control functions.”
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