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Breakthrough promises hotter, tougher, faster chips

By Rupert Goodwins
ZDNet (UK)
August 26, 2004, 11:08 AM PT

Powerful processors that run hot, but need no cooling, and devices capable of withstanding extreme environments may be the result of new research.

Researchers led by Daisuke Nakamura of Toyota Central R&D Laboratories of Aichi, Japan, have described a way to build up wafers of silicon carbide, SiC, with a very low number of defects--an essential step in mass-producing electronic devices from the compound, the science journal Nature reported on Thursday. The researchers said it may be up to six years before the process is commercialized.

The new process involves building up layers of SiC from a high-temperature gas, which allows the crystallization of the compound to happen only on the cleanest faces. By this method, the researchers said, wafers can be made with lower levels of defects--by factors of two to three times less...

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