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Silicon carbide has attracted considerable attention in recent years as a potential material for sensor devices. This paper reviews the current status of SiC technology for a wide range of sensor applications. It is shown that SiC MEMs devices are well-established with operational devices demonstrated at high temperatures (up to 500 °C) for the sensing of motion, acceleration and gas flow. SiC sensors devices using electrical properties as the sensing mechanism have also been demonstrated principally for gas composition and radiation detection and have wide potential use in scientific, medical and combustion monitoring applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to manipulate semiconductor surfaces and interfaces has gained significant attention in the past few years, in particular to design novel routes for the development of sensors and new materials, like intelligent tissues, for bio-physics applications. In this paper, we review some recent results on the atomic manipulation of cubic silicon carbide (SiC) surfaces, as obtained by ab initio simulations, and compare them with the available experimental data. The main focus will be the study of the interaction and adsorption mechanism of simple molecules on SiC surfaces. SiC, and in particular the cubic polytype, is a wide-gap semiconductor, that for its inertness and transparency has been and still is considered a leading candidate material for biocompatible devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]