Whatever Happened to Silicon Carbide

Silicon carbide has been used extensively as an abrasive, but only in the last 25 years has its potential as a semiconductor been exploited. The rationale for SiC semiconductor devices is their high temperature performance. Rectifiers, field effect transistors, charged particle detectors, and other devices operate efficiently at temperatures about 800 K.

It is the purpose of this paper to examine the progress made in SiC devices in the 1955-1975 time frame and suggest reasons for the present lack of interest in this unique material. The data given in this paper has been abstracted from previously published work.