Wide-Gap Semiconductors are large band-gap semiconductors, with excellent physical properties such as wide forbidden band-width, breakdown field of the high insulation layer, high saturation speed of electrons, and high thermal conductivity etc.
With these features, they are attracting attention as next-generation semiconductor for high-voltage devices, high-frequency high-output devices and so on, able to operate in areas that were previously inaccessible due to physical property limitations in Si (silicon) and GaAs (gallium arsenide) which are currently used in mainstream semiconductors.
In the power semiconductor field, as with other semiconductor fields, devices using silicon (Si) are the mainstream.However, now facing physical limits to the fabrication of further high-voltage, low-loss power semiconductors, next-generation power semiconductors using new semiconductor materials that are superior in electrical properties to Si, are actively under development.
High temperature operation is one of the major characteristics of wide-gap semiconductor devices.Attempts to improve heat dissipation characteristics are being studied by reducing the heat resistance of power devices, improving heat sinks and adhesive materials, and integrating modules with heat sinks.More important seems to be designing the junction temperature and ambient temperature according to the application.
As wide-gap semiconductor power devices combine characteristics of high voltage, low loss and high speed switching, designing a suitable circuit for these characteristics is necessary.Due to miniaturization of passive components caused by higher frequency, total technology to make a compact and lightweight power conversion device by reducing the number of elements is important. As a next-generation high voltage power conversion circuit, it shows promise in bidirectional insulated DC / DC converters etc. capable of realizing bidirectional power flow.
Ceramicforum began SiC epi services in 2008, and in meeting customer requests is able to support all specifications for SiC epitaxial services corresponding to N type, P type, epi for 600 V devices, and epi for ultra-high voltage devices exceeding 6500 V.As of 2011, we handle epi services from two companies, Swesish Norstel AB and Ascatron AB.