1. General introduction

Since the 1950s (the first transistor was manufactured in 1947), power electronics has developed around silicon. At the start of the 21st century, the electronics industry in general, and power electronics in particular, is still dominated by silicon, and it's realistic to think that this could remain the case for the next two decades. Indeed, no other semiconductor material is currently competitive in terms of material quality, maturity of component manufacturing technology and production cost when it comes to power components. Some semiconductor materials, such as GaAs and SiGe (part of the heterojunction family), have special physical properties compared with silicon. However, they are mainly used in the specific fields of optoelectronics and microwave