Description: We are proposing to expand on our development of unique Silicon Carbide (SiC) electronics in multiple device classes and application areas by further innovation and integration into a single flexible, modular technology. Starting from our work in the Phase II program, we will develop a next generation of our SiC Power Laterally-Diffused Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (LDMOS) Field Effect Transistors, which enable significantly greater power transfer and modular integration with SiC complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronics. We will also improve the performance of our SiC CMOS technology, particularly in transistor sizing and speed. We will enhance our UV optoelectronics technology by integrating our SiC UV sensors with these improved CMOS devices. Further levels of integration, such as on-chip power converter topologies, such as half- and full-bridges of SiC LDMOS devices, integrated with SiC CMOS circuits for control, will also be pursued. We will use our physics-based device and process modeling experience for these efforts, and our long-term high-temperature characterization and reliability testing capabilities to test all these device classes at temperatures up to 500 C for the ranges of hundreds of hours. As the culmination of this new development effort, we are going to produce a Process Design Kit (PDK) to enable outside users, in particular NASA designers, to use this technology. The PDK will bring together device characteristics, layer lists, design rules, SPICE models, and parametric cells for designing in this expanded, flexible technology. This complete development package will allow users to take advantage of the considerable benefits of SiC, such as its high-temperature resilience, extremely low dark current, having SiO2 as a native oxide, and its visible-blindness in UV-sensing applications, even at high temperatures, its inherent visible-blindness, and its capability to grow a native oxide, in a singularly broad technology base.

Benefits: SiC power management and sensor readout ICs help NASA with potential benefits of high-temperature operation capability, high efficiency, more compact system design without extra cooling, etc. Visible-blind, low-noise SiC UV sensors are ideal for high sensitivity. These features benefit many missions in Planetary and Earth Science, and Heliophysics, for e.g. surface/atmosphere characterization, running and controlling on-board science instruments, even in high-T missions such as Venus surface exploration systems and Gas Giant orbiters.

Applications for UV sensing/imaging include: rocket and bio detection, industrial monitoring, and gas logging systems. The Hi-T capability and visible blindness of SiC allow applications in extreme conditions and simpler designs. Hi-T SiC LDMOS and half-bridge power modules reduce size, weight, and cooling systems in areas like: Hi-T manufacturing, energy monitoring, and furnace/engine control.