Power Semis Usher In The Silicon Carbide Era


Silicon carbide production is ramping quickly, driven by end market demand in automotive and price parity with silicon. Many thousands of power semiconductor modules already are in use in electric vehicles for on-board charging, traction inversion, and DC-to-DC conversion. Today, most of those are fabricated using silicon-based IGBTs. A shift to silicon carbide-based MOSFETs doubles the powe... » read more

Power Modules: A Four-Dimensional Design Challenge Calls For A Holistic Design And Verification Approach


A power module is a high-power switching circuit used in applications for electric vehicles, renewable energy, photovoltaics, wind power, and much more. Switching-element IGBTs and MOSFETs are used in these modules. This paper discusses different technologies and the associated design challenges to achieve complex power module requirements like high voltage resistivity up to 1700 V, high curren... » read more

GaN Power Devices: Stability, Reliability and Robustness Issues


A technical paper titled "Stability, Reliability, and Robustness of GaN Power Devices: A Review" was published by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Kyushu University. "Gallium nitride (GaN) devices are revolutionarily advancing the efficiency, frequency, and form factor of power electronics. However, t... » read more

Vertical Nanowire Gate-All-Around FETs based on the GeSn-Material System Grown on Si


A new technical paper titled "Vertical GeSn nanowire MOSFETs for CMOS beyond silicon" was published by researchers at Peter Grünberg Institute 9, JARA, RWTH Aachen University, CEA, LETI, University of Grenoble Alpes, University of Leeds, and IHP. "Here, we present high performance, vertical nanowire gate-all-around FETs based on the GeSn-material system grown on Si. While the p-FET transcon... » read more

Ion Implantation Applications For In-Line SIMS Metrology


By Wei Ti Lee, Sarah Okada, Lawrence Rooney, Feng Zhang, and Benjamin Hickey In the semiconductor industry, ion implantation process has expanded to a wide range of applications with doses and energies spanning several orders of magnitude. Ion implantation is a very complicated process with many parameters and factors that affect the implant profile. For example, shadowing effects from high... » read more

Effects of Size Scaling and Device Architecture on the Radiation Response of Nanoscale MOS Transistors


A new technical paper titled "Perspective on radiation effects in nanoscale metal–oxide–semiconductor devices" was published by a researcher at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. The work was partially supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Air Force Research Laboratory. According to the paper, "this Perspect... » read more

UT Dallas: Electronic, Thermodynamic & Dielectric Properties of Two Novel vdW Materials


New technical paper titled "A First-Principles Study on the Electronic, Thermodynamic and Dielectric Properties of Monolayer Ca(OH)2 and Mg(OH)2," from University of Texas at Dallas. With funding support from National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Defense,  Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Abstract "We perform first-principles calculations to explore the electronic, thermodynam... » read more

NBTI & PBTI of MOSFETs


Technical paper titled "Bias Temperature Instability of MOSFETs: Physical Processes, Models, and Prediction" from researchers at Liverpool John Moores University. Abstract "CMOS technology dominates the semiconductor industry, and the reliability of MOSFETs is a key issue. To optimize chip design, trade-offs between reliability, speed, power consumption, and cost must be carried out. This r... » read more

Driving Toward More Rugged, Less Expensive SiC


Silicon carbide is gaining traction in the power semiconductor market, particularly in electrified vehicles, but it's still too expensive for many applications. The reasons are well understood, but until recently SiC was largely a niche technology that didn't warrant the investment. Now, as demand grows for chips that can work in high-voltage applications, SiC is getting a much closer look. ... » read more

GaN ICs Wanted for Power, EV Markets


Circuits built with discrete GaN components may get the job done, but fully integrated GaN circuits remain the ultimate goal because they would offer many of the same advantages as integrated silicon circuits. These benefits include lower cost as the circuit footprint is scaled, and reduced parasitic resistance and capacitance with shorter interconnect runs. In addition, improved device perf... » read more

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