Fundamentals of Silicon Carbide Technology: Growth, Characterization, Devices and Applications, Tsunenobu Kimoto, James A. Cooper, IEEE Press-Wiley, ISBN 978-1-118-31352-7, glossy hardback, 538 pages, 2014.
Reviewed by Dennis Feucht, How2Power Today, June 2012
This book is obviously about the new and emerging silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor technology. While SiC (and also GaN) are emphasized in it as semiconductor materials, the book also has good general coverage of semiconductor electronics, beginning with crystal structure and developing through solid-state physics, device processes and processing, semiconductor diodes, BJTs, power JFETs, IGBTs, MOSFETs, MESFETs, conductivity-modulated FETs or COMFETs and other types. The devices are explained in gratifying detail, which is something that may also be said of the authors’ treatment of other topics ranging from wafer and device fabrication to defect characterization to device modeling and circuit applications. Read the review»

GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion, First Edition by Alex Lidow, Johan Strydom, Michael de Rooij, and Yanping Ma, with a forward by Sam Davis.
Reviewed by Dennis Feucht, How2Power Today, June 2012
Enhancement-mode gallium-nitride (eGaN) MOSFETs are now transitioning from research to commercial use and, given their characteristics, are bound to be of major significance to power electronics engineers. Among their most-notable attributes: they are fast. This book offers an introduction to eGaN MOSFETs, which are devices that have been brought to market by Efficient Power Conversion (EPC.) While this text is by no means complete, it offers readers a good first step in learning about an important new power device. Read the review»

This is a summary of PowerAmerica’s updated wide bandgap technology roadmap, version 4.1, published in February 2019. It includes “the introductory sections of the roadmap, including executive summary and the background/introduction and market forecast pertaining to silicon carbide and gallium nitride.” Read more»

Within this 26-page PowerPoint presentation from Yole  Développement in April 2013, there are multiple technology roadmaps for SiC and GaN power devices. Slide 4 places expected SiC and GaN developments in the context of 50 years of power device development. Slide 5 shows potential applications for SiC and GaN  arranged by power levels . Slide 7 indicates the involvement of the top 23 power semi suppliers in SiC and GaN. Slide 11 charts the status of SiC device makers in bringing products to mass production. Slide 14 charts SiC device penetration into various applications. Slide 16 charts the status of GaN-on-Si device makers  in bringing products to mass production. Slide 18 charts GaN product introductions by vendor. Slide 19 charts implementation of GaN materials in power electronics applications. Slide 21 (much discussed at APEC 2013) projects the positioning of SiC, GaN and silicon MOSFETs by voltage and solution type. Slide 22 charts SiC power device market size by application. Slide 23 charts GaN device market size by application. Read more»

The R&D Partnership for Future Power Electronics Technology (FUPET),  an alliance of industry and academic organizations working to develop silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductor technology, has developed this roadmap projecting developments of SiC wafers, devices, and systems through 2020 and beyond. On the same page, you’ll also find a low loss inverter development roadmap. Read more»

Not a roadmap in the conventional sense of a chart, this ECCE 2009 conference paper by Cree engineers discusses efforts spearheaded by U.S. Air Force Research Lab, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and DARPA to develop high-power and/or high-voltage SiC power modules using Cree’s silicon carbide die in combination with Powerex’s module technology. First, a 1.2-kV, 100-A all-SiC half H-bridge, high-temperature power module is described with performance compared to a silicon IGBT module. Then, the paper discusses development of a 1.2-kV, 880-A SiC power module, which is described as “one of the first SiC modules with a power rating of 1 MW” and also as a “stepping stone” to development of  a SiC MOSFET module with a 1600-A rating (2 MW). Finally, the paper describes a 10-kV, 50-A SiC dual power switch module being developed for application in a solid-state power substation. Read more»