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Sandia Technology logo A quarterly research and development magazine.

Fall 2006
Volume 8, No. 3

SANDIA TECHNOLOGY

High-temp electronics open new era of devices

downhole tool
Randy Normann (right) and Joel Henfling with high-temperature downhole tool. (Photo by Randy Montoya)
After years of just-out-of-reach promise, the era of high-temperature electronics has arrived. Sandia is taking advantage of opportunities to embrace and advance the use of this special class of electronics across diverse applications.

“This stuff is starting to become real; things are starting to happen,” says Sandia engineer Randy Normann, a leader for more than a decade in the development and application of high-temperature electronics. High-temperature electronics, as the name suggests, are a class of electronics that functions effectively at temperatures that render conventional electronics ineffective and unreliable — temperatures ranging from 350 - 600º F.

Currently, high-temperature electronics come in two flavors: SOI — silicon-oninsulator, where an insulating substrate protects and shields conventional silicon components — and SiC — silicon carbide, with intrinsic high-temperature-tolerant characteristics. While both approaches have merits, the newer SiC-based electronics can be made smaller. “Smaller means faster and faster means more efficient. That sounds like a good combination,” Normann says.

(A still-newer high-temperature technology based on gallium nitride is in the early stages of the development process.)

Jumping in

Several commercial suppliers have aggressively jumped into the high-temp electronics market to grab a piece of the action, according to Normann. The big market driver at the moment is the welldrilling and down-hole instrumentation market, but there are a host of other applications that stand to benefit from the use of these new electronics.