Abstract
This work demonstrates a GaN enhancementmode monolithic bidirectional switch (MBDS) with breakdown voltage (BV) higher than 3.3 kV in both polarities. This MBDS is realized on a dual p-GaN gate high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) platform on sapphire substrate. It features a novel dual junction termination extension design for electric field management, which is built on the p-GaN layer in the gate stack and does not require epitaxial regrowth. The GaN MBDS exhibits symmetric on-state characteristics in both directions with a threshold voltage (Vth) of 0.6 V and a low specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 5.6 mΩ cm2. This device presents the highest BV, as well as one of the best BV and Ron,sp trade-offs, in all the reported MBDS devices. The Ron,sp is lower than the performance limit of conventional BDS realized by two discrete devices. This 3.3 kV GaN MBDS opens the door for developing new circuit topologies and advancing system performance in medium-voltage power electronics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 556-559 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | IEEE Electron Device Letters |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2025 |
Funding
The review of this letter was arranged by Editor J. Joh. (Yijin Guo, Yuan Qin, and Ming Xiao contributed equally to this work.) Device fabrication was conducted as part of a user project with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility.
Keywords
- bidirectional switch
- GaN
- HEMT
- JTE
- monolithic
- Power electronics
- power semiconductor device