The similarities and differences in development of crystal growth of bulk silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminum nitride (AIN) are discussed. It is concluded that AIN is going to become the second crystal grown in production scale using PVT technique. The growth technology of AIN may take advantage of learning from SiC technology as the latter is based on significant advances achieved in the course of last 20 years. The main differences between two materials are in incongruent evaporation of SiC and in poor compatibility of AIN with regular high-temperature crucible materials. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.