A new bottom gate design takes advantage of the intrinsic properties of SiC.

For more than 20 years, silicon carbide – SiC – has been viewed as a promising material for electronics that must function in extreme environments. Yet despite years of research, that promise has rarely translated into practical devices. Researchers at Kyoto University are now trying to move the field beyond that barrier.

“We believe the lack of development is because the research community has been trying to apply silicon-era thinking to a fundamentally different material,” says first author Mitsuaki Kaneko.