Rohm develops SiC Schottky barrier diodes
The company plans to begin shipping SiC Schottky barrier diodes in spring 2004 and will eventually use the material for other devices, including transistors.
At present, the only other commercial producers of SiC Schottky diodes are Infineon and Cree.
Rohm s Schottky barrier diode is one-fourth the size of a comparably performing silicon-based device and can operate at temperatures up to 400 degrees C, four times higher than a silicon-based Schottky barrier diode.
Furthermore, Rohm s device consumes one-tenth as much power as a comparable silicon device. It has a blocking voltage of 600 volts, and can switch current flow in 10 nanoseconds, about one-third the norm.
Rohm fabricates SiC substrates using a proprietary crystal-growth technique that requires relatively low temperatures of around 1,000 degrees C. The company says that this results in higher-performance devices.
