[sionnsar]

When silicon electronics are used to control motors about half of the electrical energy that flows through the circuit is wasted. In contrast, silicon carbide circuits would be up to 70% efficient, Wright says. This is because silicon can only handle low-frequency pulses, whereas silicon carbide can carry electricity at a much higher frequency, incurring far less energy loss.

Something really wrong here...

[Bane]

What is wrong is the implication that there is a huge waste in electricy in current chips. Most run on 5v or less. (smaller technologies .13um and lower are running on around 3v)

[Ramius]

It's interesting...

Now all we need is some nice cheap room-temp superconducting material... and I'll only have refuel my 5 terahertz laptop about once every couple of years. :-)

Of course, it would be obsolete by the time I need to change the battery, so why bother?

[expatpat]

I think they are referring to eddy-curent losses in the substrate due to the em waves caused by the high-frequency switched currents. SiC has a lower conductance and would be better than silicon. (However, SOS {silicon on sapphire} is better than SiC.)