In October 2012, SemiSouth Laboratories was closed after it went through bankruptcy. Headquatered in Austin TX, with R&D facilities in MS, SemiSouth is a silicon carbide (SiC) based semiconductor company specializing in SiC materials and electrical components for high-power, high-efficiency, harsh-environment power management and conversion applications. Typical applications range from power conversion, such as in computing and network power supplies, to variable-speed drives for industrial motors and hybrid electric vehicles, to high-power, harsh-environment military and aerospace applications. SiC-based semiconductor devices offer significant advantages over competing products based on silicon, GaAs and other materials for power-based electronic applications. In some applications, the properties and parameters of SiC power transistors have allowed for replacement of up to 10 conventional solid-state devices. Furthermore, products based on SiC provide up to an order of magnitude improvement in performance in technical applications where silicon is already approaching theoretical limits. For these reasons, SiC products will enable essential technical performance that, in turn, will allow customers to develop and market innovative and competitive products.
