Researchers say cubic boron arsenide is the best semiconductor material ever found, with two major advantages over silicon: It provides high mobility to both electrons and holes, and it has excellent thermal conductivity.

Two compound semiconductor devices that have emerged as solutions are gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) power transistors. These devices compete with the long-lived silicon power LDMOS MOSFETs and superjunction MOSFETs.

Like gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC), gallium arsenide (GaAS) is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material, (WBG) but the similarities largely end there. Unlike its siblings, GaAs is not a technology that is specifically keyed at handling large amounts of power.

However, gallium arsenide, along with other compounds like gallium nitride and silicon carbide, are now sharing the stage. So what is gallium arsenide and how does it differ from other compounds? Let's explore this compound and take a look at how it's being used as a semiconductor material.

Gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) FETs are enabling higher levels of power density and efficiency compared to traditional silicon metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs).