(Invited) Wide Band-Gap on Its Hard Way up - The Trouble Starts Just Outside the Chip

Semiconductor chips made from silicon carbide (SiC) or gallium nitride (GaN) are already approaching the theoretical limits given by the respective wide band-gap (WBG) materials. Unfortunately, their advantages over silicon devices cannot be fully exploited due to limitations imposed by the device packaging or the circuitry around the semiconductors. Stray inductances slowdown the switching speed and increase losses, packaging materials limit the maximum temperature and the maximum useful temperature swing, and passives limit the maximum switching frequency. All these issues have to be solved or at least minimized to make WBG attractive for a wider range of applications and, consequently, to profit from the economy of scale. Only this way, WBG-devices could step out of the high end niche and could really challenge silicon, which will remain to be a powerful competitor. And WBG-materials (theoretically) even better than SiC and GaN are at the horizon already.