Integrated Digital and Analog Circuit Blocks in a Scalable Silicon Carbide CMOS Technology

The wide bandgap of silicon carbide (SiC) has attracted a large interest over the past years in many research fields, such as power electronics, high operation temperature circuits, harsh environmental sensing, and more. To facilitate research on complex integrated SiC circuits, ensure reproducibility, and cut down cost, the availability of a low-voltage SiC technology for integrated circuits is of paramount importance. Here, we report on a scalable and open state-of-the-art SiC CMOS technology that addresses this need. An overview of technology parameters, including MOSFET threshold voltage, subthreshold slope, slope factor, and process transconductance, is reported. Conventional integrated digital and analog circuits, ranging from inverters to a 2-bit analog-to-digital converter, are reported. First yield predictions for both analog and digital circuits show great potential for increasing the amount of integrated devices in future applications.

I. Introduction

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a wide-bandgap material that has been extensively researched over the past decades, especially for the application in power electronics [1], [2]. Together with galium nitride (GaN), the future market of wide-bandgap materials in power electronics is expected to be booming [3]. This foresight and the developed technologies pave the way for application in other fields as well [4]–[7], such as harsh environment sensing [8], [9] and ultraviolet detectors, though there are challenges for the next generation of devices to overcome [10].