Ceramic Semi-Conductors?

Dr. Jagdish Narayan, a researcher at North Carolina State University, has developed a new ceramic material that has exciting applications in semi-conductor technology. By adding some strategically selected impurities to their ceramics research, they have created a chip that can hold one bit of data in a space that is 90% smaller than existing technologies. Narayan says,

"Instead of making a chip that stores 20 gigabytes, you have one that can handle one terabyte, or 50 times more data."

This development is extremely exciting. If the research turns out to be scalable and mass-producible, then it could lead to the spread technical ceramics applications outside of areas like ceramic wear components and such.

Surfer Dude Saves Indonesian Town

Here’s a great story that involves surfers, earthquakes, and ceramic water filters. Jon Rose, a Long Beach, CA resident whose father, Jack Rose, has a non-profit called Rain Catcher. The non-profit helps to educate villagers in Africa about rainwater collection and filtration. The son had just launched Waves for Water, which follows a similar idea and applies it to popular surf regions.

Jon Rose had been surfing in Indonesia when a massive 7.6-on-the-Richter Scale earthquake struck on 30 September. Luckily, the surfer had stowed some ceramic clay water filters in his surf bag. Through immediate, attentive effort, Mr. Rose was able to provide filtration for the region, which has a population of over 750,000 residents. The earthquake had wiped out their previous water supply.

Maybe we should change the filter more frequently?

At our company, we drink tap water. Besides saving money, drinking tap money has been shown time and again to be as clean--if not cleaner--than bottled water. However, we noticed that our water was starting to taste a little bit off, so we examined the water filter. A ha! Take a look at this.
That cylinder on the top is the one that's been in (over)use, the one on the bottom is the replacement filter. The filters are made of ceramic. Ceramic makes an excellent water filter due to its density and porosity, both of which can be easily controlled. This particular filter features Sterasyl ceramic, which has a highly consistent and controlled pore structure, which can remove a wide range of water borne contaminants. They don’t restrict the flow of the water, and they make the water taste great, which means like nothing at all!

A New Report on the Market Outlook for Silicon Carbide

Silicon carbide (SiC), which is also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite. It’s been used as an abrasive since 1893, and nowadays it is used in applications as various as car brakes and ceramic bulletproof vests to light-emitting diodes and radio detectors. SiC is also widely used in high-temperature semiconductor electronics, due to its amazing temperature-resistant properties.

There was a recent report from tech consultant Yole Développement outlining a curious absence of silicon carbide-based transistors, which was reporter in Semiconductor International. According to the report, the total market for SiC devices is $2.6 billion, more than 20% of the entire silicon-based power business in 2008. However, this share is expected to grow as various factors constraining SiC’s market penetration are overcome.

One factor slowing down SiC market penetration is its high cost. Low-voltage applications comprise the vast majority of SiC-based devices, which tend to have low margins. Medium-voltage (1.2 to 1.7 kV) applications are expected to increase over the next two to three years. High-voltage applications are expected to appear slowly beginning in 2013 or 2014 as technological improvements and cost reductions make SiC applications viable.

Total SiC substrate merchant market reached approximately $48 million in 2008, and it is expected to exceed $300 million during the decade. However, its relative share is looking like it will decrease. Currently, Chinese production companies are driving growth in the SiC transistor market. On the high end of projections, a yearly $800 million market can be expected for the SiC substrate transistor sector.