NANOMANUFACTURING OF SiC CIRCUITS — NANOMECHANICAL LOGIC AND NEMS-JFET INTEGRATION

Silicon carbide (SiC) remains the most promising semiconductor for developing harsh environment microsystems, particularly in applications where temperatures exceed 300 °C. While significant progress has been made in the development of more conventional junction field effect transistors (JFET), many challenges remain, particularly in the realization of robust digital logic circuits. The authors have been developing SiC-based electromechanical switches towards digital logic circuits, the goal being hybrid integration, with high performance JFET electronics complementing ultralow power logic enabled by nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). In this paper, the advances made in NEMS logic technology are first discussed. Areas that require additional research are detailed. A simplified integration scheme is proposed.