Staff profile

Alton Horsfall is a Professor in Electrical Engineering. 

He graduated with a BSc and PhD in Physics from Durham in 1993 and 1997 and then spent two years working for the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in the Future Concepts team, before moving to Newcastle University, where he became the Reader in Semiconductor Technology in 2011. He was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering in September 2017.

Alton is a leading expert in the development of electronic and electrical systems for deployment in extreme environments, such as those found in jet engines, nuclear reactors, automotive exhausts and volcanoes. This includes the development of fundamental devices and processing, as well as the demonstration of a range of world first capabilities, including power electronics and communications systems that can operate at temperatures beyond 300C. He is currently developing amplifiers for radiation detectors that can operate within the nuclear island and high temperature current monitors for fault detection in power modules.

His recent interests include the use of quantum physics to accurately map the electric field distribution in a power semiconductor device in real time, that he is developing with collaborators at Heriot Watt University. This concept is being broadened to include the development of nano-scale magnetometry for fundamental studies and biological cell imaging.

He is also developing Solid State Transformer technology to enable a new generation of high power density power syetems for applications ranging from underwater ROVs to the grid connection of renewable energy sources at the microgrid level.

His research is funded by a range of companies including Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, IsoCom, Clas-SiC and Littelfuse, as well as EPSRC and Innovate UK.

He is a full member of the EPSRC College, sits on the Technical Programme Committee of the IEEE Sensors Conference and has won four best paper prizes from international conferences. He has successfully supervised 27 PhD students and won the prize for the best lecturer in the School of Electrical Engineering in 2014.

Alton is currently Guest Editor of a special edition of the Sensors Journal entitled Sensors for Extreme Environments. The call for papers can be found at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors/special_issues/sensors_for_Extreme

Chapter in book

• Brennan, D., Chan, H., Wright, N., & Horsfall, A. (2018). Silicon Carbide Oscillators for Extreme Environments. In S. Walia, & K. Iniewski (Eds.), Low power semiconductor devices and processes for emerging applications in communications, computing, and sensing (225-252). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429503634-10
• Rashid, M., Horrocks, B., Healy, N., Goss, J., Chan, H., & Horsfall, A. (2018). Surface Functionalisation of Silicon Carbide Quantum Dots. In S. Walia, & K. Iniewski (Eds.), Low Power Semiconductor Devices and Processes for Emerging Applications in Communications, Computing and Sensing (181-199). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429503634-8
• Weng, M., Brennan, D., Wright, N., & Horsfall, A. (2018). Self-Oscillatory DC-DC Converter Circuits for Energy Harvesting in Extreme Environments. In M. Niu (Ed.), Advanced electronic circuits (3-20). IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72718

Conference Paper

• Blackhorse-Hull, D., Mohanan-Leela, P., Alsafrani, A., Sarma, N., Crabtree, C., & Horsfall, A. (2024, June). Dual polarity multi-level boost DC-DC converter. Presented at 13th International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD 2024), Nottingham, UK

Journal Article

• Idris, M. I., & Horsfall, A. (2022). Increased Mobility in 4H-SiC MOSFETs by Means of Hydrogen Annealing. Crystals, 12(8), Article 1111. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12081111
• Littlefair, M. T. M., Simdyankin, S., Turvey, S., Groves, C., & Horsfall, A. B. (2022). Single event burnout sensitivity of SiC and Si. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 37(6), Article 065013. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/ac668c
• Idris, M. I., & Horsfall, A. B. (2021). 3D structures for silicon carbide transistors utilising Al2O3 as a gate dielectric. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, 128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2021.105727
• Bradley, L., Horsfall, A., & Dyson, A. (2020). Modelling the Key Material Properties of Germanium for Device Simulation in Cryogenic Environments. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 67(10), 4099-4104. https://doi.org/10.1109/ted.2020.3018097
• Alsnani, H., Goss, J., Briddon, P., Rayson, M., & Horsfall, A. (2019). First Principles Study of the Stability and Diffusion Mechanism of a Carbon Vacancy in the Vicinity of a SiO2/4H‐SiC Interface. physica status solidi (a) – applications and materials science, 216(17), Article 1900328. https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201900328
• Rashid, M., Idris, M. I., Horrocks, B. R., Healy, N., Goss, J. P., & Horsfall, A. B. (2018). Pore Wall Thinning of Mesoporous 4H-SiC by Sacrificial Oxidation. Crystal Research and Technology, 53(9), Article 1800120. https://doi.org/10.1002/crat.201800120
• Idris, M., Wright, N., & Horsfall, A. (2018). Effect off Post Oxide Annealing on the electrical and Interface 4-H SiC/Al2O3 MOS Capacitors. Materials Science Forum, 924, 486-489. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.924.486
• Idris, M., Wright, N., & Horsfall, A. (2018). Analysis of 3-Dimensional 4H-SiC MOS Capacitors Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition of Al2O3. Materials Science Forum, 924, 490-493. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.924.490
• Weng, M., Idris, M., Wright, S., Clark, D., Young, R., McIntosh, J., Gordon, D., & Horsfall, A. (2018). First Demonstration of High Temperature SiC CMOS Gate Driver in Bridge Leg for Hybrid Power Module Application. Materials Science Forum, 924, 854-857. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.924.854
• Weng, M., Clark, D., Wright, S., Gordon, D., Duncan, M., Kirkham, S., Idris, M., Chan, H., Young, R., Ramsay, E., Wright, N., & Horsfall, A. (2017). Recent advance in high manufacturing readiness level and high temperature CMOS mixed-signal integrated circuits on silicon carbide. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 32(5), Article 054003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/aa61de
• Idris, M., Weng, M., Chan, H., Murphy, A., Clark, D., Young, R., Ramsay, E., Wright, N., & Horsfall, A. (2016). Instability of phosphorous doped SiO2 in 4H-SiC MOS capacitors at high temperatures. Journal of Applied Physics, 120(21), Article 214902. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4969050
• Rashid, M., Horrocks, B., Healy, N., Goss, J., & Horsfall, A. (2016). Optical properties of mesoporous 4H-SiC prepared by anodic electrochemical etching. Journal of Applied Physics, 120(19), Article 194303. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4968172
• Peaker, C., Atumi, M., Goss, J., Briddon, P., Horsfall, A., Rayson, M., & Jones, R. (2016). Assignment of 13C hyperfine interactions in the P1-center in diamond. Diamond and Related Materials, 70, 118-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diamond.2016.10.013
• Rashid, M., Tiwari, A. K., Goss, J., Rayson, M., Briddon, P., & Horsfall, A. (2016). Surface-state dependent optical properties of OH-, F-, and H-terminated 4H-SiC quantum dots. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 18(31), Article 21676. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cp03775e
• Wells, G., Hopf, T., Vassilevski, K., Escobedo-Cousin, E., Wright, N., Horsfall, A., Goss, J., O'Neill, A., & Hunt, M. (2014). Determination of the adhesion energy of graphene on SiC(0001) via measurement of pleat defects. Applied Physics Letters, 105(19), Article 193109. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4901941
• Nagareddy, V., Chan, H., Hernández, S., Wheeler, V., Nyakiti, L., Myers-Ward, R., Eddy, C., Goss, J., Wright, N., Walton, S., Gaskill, D., & Horsfall, A. (2013). Improved Chemical Detection and Ultra-Fast Recovery Using Oxygen Functionalized Epitaxial Graphene Sensors. IEEE Sensors Journal, 13(8), 2810-2817. https://doi.org/10.1109/jsen.2013.2259154