Advancing Maturity of Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Ecosystems

The development and commercialization of wide bandgap semiconductors over the past 30 years has been one of the great successes of interdisciplinary research between materials, physics, and electrical engineering. The motivation was the theoretical potential for technology displacement, which as commercial applications materialized, has led to intense competition and a recognition that these semiconductors are important for national security and economic competitiveness. Presently, a variety of governments are heavily investing in semiconductors and the formation of supporting semiconductor “ecosystems.” Silicon and wide bandgap semiconductors innovate in different ways and at different economic scales, but as a starting point we can examine the maturity and complexity of the silicon ecosystem and compare where we stand with wide and ultrawide bandgap semiconductors. This raises the question of what a “wide band gap semiconductor ecosystem” should look like. This is not clear, especially with the rapid advancement of computational tools for materials discovery and increased dependence on simulations and electronic design automation tools. What is clear, is that as we see wide bandgap technologies get adopted, the push for new capabilities (primarily focused on increased efficiency and higher device performance at lower cost) is leading to further innovations in materials, device designs, and processing techniques. The payoff of a successful ecosystem is more rapid learning cycles and sufficient co-design such that devices can be made in manufacturable ways that approach theoretical performance when appropriately packaged. The talk will use examples from Silicon, Silicon Carbide, III-Nitride RF, power and photonic devices and emerging ultrawide bandgap semiconductors (Gallium Oxide and Diamond) to illustrate different aspects of wide bandgap ecosystem needs.