ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews silicon carbide (SiC) electronic technology platforms for use in high-temperature environments. The high breakdown electric field of SiC, coupled with high thermal conductivity and high junction temperature, enables higher power densities and efficiencies. Most analog signal conditioning and digital logic circuits are considered “low power” in that individual transistors in these circuits do not typically require any more than a few milliamperes of current and less than 20 V to function properly. The significant improvements of SiC MOSFET channel/interface properties coupled with increasing recognized need for high-temperature IC capability have both contributed to a resurgence in SiC MOSFET IC development. Doped-channel metal–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs) are architecturally very similar to junction field-effect transistor (JFET), with the major inherent difference being the use of a metal–semiconductor Schottky diode gate to control current flow through the MESFET n-channel instead of a pn junction gate for the JFET.
