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Technology Stocks : Wolf speed
WOLF 15.66-9.6%Jan 30 9:30 AM EST

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To: mtnlady who wrote (1778)2/4/2000 12:31:00 PM
From: Guy Gordon  Read Replies (1) of 10714
 
mtnlady: SiC is commonly known as Carborundum. It has been used as a cutting material for decades. It is the 3'rd hardest material known. You can walk into any Home Depot and buy a carborundum tipped sawblade.

This use has nothing to do with CREE. Carborundum is made by melting sand and coke (carbon). What Cree does is take carborundum and sublimate it into near-perfect crystals that are suitable for electronics.

SiC is indeed a wonderful material. But it is not going to replace Si as a semiconductor. In fact, hardness is a detriment to the use of SiC as a semiconductor. It is far too hard to grow and work with. And, it's benefits are not necessary in most applications. This is a specialty product.

In fact, it's major use (Blue LED's) is almost an accident. The actual active semiconductor in a Blue LED is GaN (Galium Nitride). Cree grows a layer of GaN on SiC because the lattices match well. Cree's competitors use AlO3 (Saphire) substrates.
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