Towards electronics at 1000 °C

High temperature electronics is up to now essentially limited to approx. 500 °C by the high temperature properties of the active semiconductor elements mostly based on SiC [1]. Sensing at even higher temperature relies therefore mostly on non-semiconductor components essentially limiting the systems complexities. However in recent years III-Nitride heterostructures, namely lattice matched InAlN/GaN heterostructures, have become an alternative. In an initial proof-of-concept experiment in 2006 [2] 1000 °C operation could be demonstrated for a short period of time.