Historical Introduction to Silicon Carbide Discovery, Properties and Technology
K. Vasilevskiy, N.G. Wright
This chapter reviews the history of silicon carbide technology from the first developments in the early 1890s to the present day and highlights the major developments that have facilitated the emergence of the world-wide SiC electronics industry. Physical, chemical and electrical properties of silicon carbide are also briefly described and discussed. The advantage of silicon carbide over silicon in use for fabrication of semiconductor power devices is illustrated by the rough estimation of blocking layer parameters in unipolar SiC and Si devices and comparison of their characteristics. Current state in commercial production and availability of SiC wafers and epitaxial structures as well as potential market of SiC power devices are also outlined.
Keywords
Acheson Process, BJT, Carborundum, Cree, Crystal Growth, DIMOSFET, Electroluminescence, Epitaxy, GTO, Hexagonality, History, HTCVD, IGBT, Inverter, LED, Lely Platelets, LETI Method, Lifetime Enhancement Thermal Oxidation, Material Properties, Micropipe, Modified Lely Method, Moissanite, MOSFET, Polytypism, Radio Detector, RAF Growth Process, Schottky Diode, SiC, SiC Devices, Silicon Carbide, Stacking Fault, Step-Controlled Epitaxy, Step-Flow Growth, Sublimation Sandwich Method, Technology, Varistor
Published online 2/15/2020, 62 pages
Citation: K. Vasilevskiy, N.G. Wright, Historical Introduction to Silicon Carbide Discovery, Properties and Technology, Materials Research Foundations, Vol. 69, pp 1-62, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644900673-1
Part of the book on Advancing Silicon Carbide Electronics Technology II
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