Development of an extreme environment resistive CCD using silicon carbide

There is a growing need for electronic devices that can maintain a long life with high reliability even in the harshest of environments such as in high radiation fields and extreme temperatures. One tangible example of this is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that occurred on 11 March 2011. A nuclear accident took place at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, that is known as the most severe nuclear accident since the 25 April 1986 Chernobyl disaster. If electronic devices with high-radiation resistance and the ability to operate at high temperatures can be created, human exposure to high radiation fields can be reduced or even prevented and lives saved. This is the premise of investigations being conducted by an intrepid group of Japan-based researchers. In a world first, a team in the Division of Mathematics, Electronics and Informatics at Saitama University, Japan, is attempting to fabricate a charge-coupled device (CCD), also known as an image sensor, by replacing silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors that can operate at high temperatures with silicon (Si) semiconductors with high radiation resistance.