SILICON CARBIDE chips will go where no chips have gone before---onto automobile engine blocks, down bore holes, and into the inferno of exhaust outlets. SiC semiconductors have a large energy gap: that is, it takes 2.9 eV (at room temperature) to promote the material from an insulator into a conductor of electrons. Silicon (energy gap of 1.1 eV) and gallium arsenide (1.43 eV) are much better suited to ordinary circuitry but fail at higher temperatures and voltages, which is precisely where SiC circuits will come into their own. For example, SiC components will appear later this year in high-power microwave transmitters, the kind that will be needed for high-definition television. (New Scientist, 14 June 1997.)