An image sensor based on wide band gap silicon carbide (SiC) has the merits of high temperature operation and ultraviolet (UV) detection. To realize a SiC-based image sensor the challenge of opto-electronic on-chip integration of SiC photodetectors and digital electronic circuits must be addressed. Here, we demonstrate a novel SiC image sensor based on our in-house bipolar technology. The sensing part has 256 ( $16\times 16$ ) pixels. The digital circuit part for row and column selection contains two 4-to-16 decoders and one 8-bit counter. The digital circuits are designed in transistor-transistor logic (TTL). The entire circuit has 1959 transistors. It is the first demonstration of SiC opto-electronic on-chip integration. The function of the image sensor up to 400 degrees C has been verified by taking photos of the spatial patterns masked from UV light. The image sensor would play a significant role in UV photography, which has important applications in astronomy, clinics, combustion detection and art.

This paper reports an industry standard monolithic 555-timer circuit designed and fabricated in the in-house silicon carbide (SiC) low-voltage bipolar technology. This paper demonstrates the 555-timer integrated circuits (ICs) characterization in both astable and monostable modes of operation, with a supply voltage of 15 V over the wide temperature range of 25 degrees C-500 degrees C. Nonmonotonic temperature dependence was observed for the 555-timer IC frequency, rise time, fall-time, and power dissipation.

This paper reports an industry standard monolithic 555-timer circuit designed and fabricated in the in-house silicon carbide (SiC) low-voltage bipolar technology. The paper demonstrates the 555-timer ICs characterization in both astable and monostable modes of operation, with a supply voltage of 15 V over the wide temperature range of 25 to 500°C. Nonmonotonictemperature dependence was observed for the 555-timer IC frequency, rise-time, fall-time, and power dissipation.

Processing techniques for 4H-SiC devices and circuits are optimized. The SiC mesa etching process has a variation of < 5% over the wafer. The average n-type contact resistivity is 1.15 × 10-6 Ohm.cm2. The fabricated devices and circuits with one-layer metal interconnect have high yield with no need of chemical-mechanical planarization process. More complex circuits with two-layer metal interconnect achieve high yield by applying chemical-mechanical planarization process. 

Electronics such as microprocessors are highly demanded to monitor or control a process or operation in temperature critical (300 ºC to 600 °C) applications. State-of-the-art silicon-based integrated circuits (ICs) have been improved significantly throughout the years but mainly for a low-temperature ambient. At a temperature higher than 300 ºC silicon-on-insulator (SOI) or bulk silicon-based electronics cannot operate reliably. Therefore the wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) come into play.

In recent years, many types of SiC-based devices and low complex ICs have been reported and are operational at a high temperature (HT). The main goal of the thesis is to explore and demonstrate the feasibility of SiC-based circuits that are complex, dense and monolithically integrated for high-temperature applications such as a central-processing-unit (CPU).

This thesis work demonstrates a Process Design Kit (PDK) for the SiC-based large scale integrated (LSI) circuits implementation. It consists of discrete devices, gate and module library, and SiC ICs verification programs. The thesis work reports the PDK results over the full temperature range of 25 to 500 °C with a power supply of 10 V to 20 V.

The thesis work demonstrates a 4-bit CPU architecture designed for a proposed instruction set. Manual place and route with around 10,000 devices and area of 150 mm² were carried out using the PDK standard cell library. The CPU and integral parts have been implemented at the transistor level using the PDK gate/module library and simulated from 25 to 500 °C. The CPU has been fabricated in the in-house low-power SiC bipolar process and measured at a high temperature.

The thesis work also reports reference analog and mixed-signal ICs. A 555-timer consisting of both digital and analog circuits has been designed, integrated and characterized up to 500 °C. Flash and SAR ADCs have been implemented using the PDK for HT applications. A 256-pixel image-sensor design and layout were also carried out using the PDK.

This thesis work is an important step and has laid the foundation of SiC-based LSI circuits realization for extreme environment applications.

A Process Design Kit (PDK) has been developed to realize complex integrated circuits in Silicon Carbide (SiC) bipolar low-power technology. The PDK development process included basic device modeling, and design of gate library and parameterized cells. A transistor–transistor logic (TTL)-based PDK gate library design will also be discussed with delay, power, noise margin, and fan-out as main design criterion to tolerate the threshold voltage shift, beta (β) and collector current (I_C) variation of SiC devices as temperature increases. The PDK-based complex digital ICsdesign flow based on layout, physical verification, and in-house fabrication process will also be demonstrated. Both combinational and sequential circuits have been designed, such as a 720-device ALU and a 520-device 4 bit counter. All the integrated circuits and devices are fully characterized up to 500 °C. The inverter and a D-type flip-flop (DFF) are characterized as benchmark standard cells. The proposed work is a key step towards SiC-based very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits implementation for high-temperature applications.

Ring oscillators (ROs) are used to study the high-temperature characteristics of an in-house silicon carbide (SiC) technology. Design and successful operation of the in-house-fabricated 4H-SiC n-p-n bipolar transistors and TTL inverter-based 11-stage RO are reported from 25 degrees C to 600 degrees C. Non-monotonous temperature dependence was observed for the oscillator frequency; in the range of 25 degrees C to 300 degrees C, it increased with the temperature (1.33 MHz at 300 degrees C and V-CC = 15 V), while it decreased in the range of 300 degrees C-600 degrees C. The oscillator output frequency and delay were also characterized over a wide range of supply voltage (10 to 20 V). The noise margins of the TTL inverter were also measured; noise margin low (NML) decreases with the temperature, whereas noise margin high (NMH) increases with the temperature. The measured power-delay product (P-D . T-P) of the TTL inverter and 11-stage RO was approximate to 4.5 and approximate to 285 nJ, respectively, at V-CC= 15 V. Reliability testing indicated that the RO frequency of oscillation decreased 16% after HT characterization.

This work presents the design and electrical characterization of in-house-fabricated 2-input NAND gate. The monolithic bipolar 2-input NAND gate employing transistor-transistor logic (TTL) is demonstrated in 4H-SiC and operates over a wide range of temperature and supply voltage. The fabricated circuit was characterized on the wafer by using a hot-chuck probe-station from 25 °C up to 500 °C. The circuit is also characterized over a wide range of voltage supply i.e. 11 to 20 V. The output-noise margin high (NMH) and output-noise margin low (NML) are also measured over a wide range of temperatures and supply voltages using voltage transfer characteristics (VTC). The transient response was measured by applying two square waves of, 5 kHz and 10 kHz. It is demonstrated that the dynamic parameters of the circuit are temperature dependent. The 2-input TTL NAND gate consumes 20 mW at 500 °C and 15 V.

This paper demonstrates a fully integrated master-slave emitter-coupled logic (ECL)comparator and a frequency divider implemented in 4H-SiC bipolar technology. The comparator consists of two latch stages, two level shifters and an output buffer stage. The circuits have been tested up to 500 °C. The single ended output swing of the comparator is -7.73 V at 25 °C and-7.63 V at 500 °C with a -15 V supply voltage. The comparator consumes 585 mW at 25 °C. The frequency divider consisting of two latches shows a relatively constant output voltage swing over the wide temperature range. The output voltage swing is 7.62 V at 25 °C and 7.32 V at 500 °C.