SIC - A SEMICONDUCTOR FOR HIGH-POWER, HIGH-TEMPERATURE AND HIGH-FREQUENCY DEVICES

SiC has in comparison with Si superior basic properties for applicatio ns in high-power, high-frequency and high-temperature electronics. The potential applications of SiC were known decades ago, but the poor qu ality of the material produced at that time has delayed the device dev elopment. However, during the last years the crystal growth process of SiC has been improved considerably. We will present some important pr operties of SiC, describe the two most common growth processes and dis cuss fundamental materials problems that remain to be solved. A furthe r aspect, which we will discuss, is the polytypism of SiC, which may a llow us to obtain generic knowledge of, for instance, defects in semic onductors.