True Breakdown Voltage and Overvoltage Margin of GaN Power HEMTs in Hard Switching

Joseph P. Kozak; Ruizhe Zhang; Qihao Song; Jingcun Liu; Wataru Saito; Yuhao Zhang

doi:10.1109/LED.2021.3063360

True Breakdown Voltage and Overvoltage Margin of GaN Power HEMTs in Hard Switching

Joseph P. Kozak, Ruizhe Zhang, Qihao Song, Jingcun Liu, Wataru Saito, Yuhao Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This work studies the dynamic breakdown voltage (BV) and overvoltage margin of a 650-V-rated commercial GaN power HEMT in hard switching. The dynamic BV measured in the hard switching circuits is over 1.4 kV, being 450 V higher than the static BV measured in the quasi-static I-V sweep. The device can survive at least 1 million hard-switching overvoltage pulses with 1.33 kV peak overvoltage (95% dynamic BV). Recoverable device parametric shifts are observed after the 1-million pulses, featuring small reductions in threshold voltage and on-resistance. These shifts are different from the ones after the hard-switching pulses without overvoltage and are attributable to the trapping of the holes produced in impact ionization. These results suggest that the BV and overvoltage margin of GaN HEMTs in practical power switching can be significantly underestimated using the static BV.

Original language	English
Article number	9367212
Pages (from-to)	505-508
Number of pages	4
Journal	IEEE Electron Device Letters
Volume	42
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2021.3063360
Publication status	Published - Apr 2021

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Access to Document

10.1109/LED.2021.3063360

Cite this

@article{a73a6fe4907f420db944007095d382c9,

title = "True Breakdown Voltage and Overvoltage Margin of GaN Power HEMTs in Hard Switching",

abstract = "This work studies the dynamic breakdown voltage (BV) and overvoltage margin of a 650-V-rated commercial GaN power HEMT in hard switching. The dynamic BV measured in the hard switching circuits is over 1.4 kV, being 450 V higher than the static BV measured in the quasi-static I-V sweep. The device can survive at least 1 million hard-switching overvoltage pulses with 1.33 kV peak overvoltage (95% dynamic BV). Recoverable device parametric shifts are observed after the 1-million pulses, featuring small reductions in threshold voltage and on-resistance. These shifts are different from the ones after the hard-switching pulses without overvoltage and are attributable to the trapping of the holes produced in impact ionization. These results suggest that the BV and overvoltage margin of GaN HEMTs in practical power switching can be significantly underestimated using the static BV.",

author = "Kozak, {Joseph P.} and Ruizhe Zhang and Qihao Song and Jingcun Liu and Wataru Saito and Yuhao Zhang",

note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received February 22, 2021; accepted February 28, 2021. Date of publication March 2, 2021; date of current version March 24, 2021. This work was supported in part by the PowerAmerica, Department of Energy. The review of this letter was arranged by Editor T. Egawa. (Corresponding author: Yuhao Zhang.) Joseph P. Kozak, Ruizhe Zhang, Qihao Song, Jingcun Liu, and Yuhao Zhang are with the Center for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24060 USA (e-mail: yhzhang@vt.edu). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 1980-2012 IEEE.",

year = "2021",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1109/LED.2021.3063360",

language = "English",

volume = "42",

pages = "505--508",

journal = "IEEE Electron Device Letters",

issn = "0741-3106",

publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - True Breakdown Voltage and Overvoltage Margin of GaN Power HEMTs in Hard Switching

AU - Kozak, Joseph P.

AU - Zhang, Ruizhe

AU - Song, Qihao

AU - Liu, Jingcun

AU - Saito, Wataru

AU - Zhang, Yuhao

N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received February 22, 2021; accepted February 28, 2021. Date of publication March 2, 2021; date of current version March 24, 2021. This work was supported in part by the PowerAmerica, Department of Energy. The review of this letter was arranged by Editor T. Egawa. (Corresponding author: Yuhao Zhang.) Joseph P. Kozak, Ruizhe Zhang, Qihao Song, Jingcun Liu, and Yuhao Zhang are with the Center for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24060 USA (e-mail: yhzhang@vt.edu). Publisher Copyright: © 1980-2012 IEEE.

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - This work studies the dynamic breakdown voltage (BV) and overvoltage margin of a 650-V-rated commercial GaN power HEMT in hard switching. The dynamic BV measured in the hard switching circuits is over 1.4 kV, being 450 V higher than the static BV measured in the quasi-static I-V sweep. The device can survive at least 1 million hard-switching overvoltage pulses with 1.33 kV peak overvoltage (95% dynamic BV). Recoverable device parametric shifts are observed after the 1-million pulses, featuring small reductions in threshold voltage and on-resistance. These shifts are different from the ones after the hard-switching pulses without overvoltage and are attributable to the trapping of the holes produced in impact ionization. These results suggest that the BV and overvoltage margin of GaN HEMTs in practical power switching can be significantly underestimated using the static BV.

AB - This work studies the dynamic breakdown voltage (BV) and overvoltage margin of a 650-V-rated commercial GaN power HEMT in hard switching. The dynamic BV measured in the hard switching circuits is over 1.4 kV, being 450 V higher than the static BV measured in the quasi-static I-V sweep. The device can survive at least 1 million hard-switching overvoltage pulses with 1.33 kV peak overvoltage (95% dynamic BV). Recoverable device parametric shifts are observed after the 1-million pulses, featuring small reductions in threshold voltage and on-resistance. These shifts are different from the ones after the hard-switching pulses without overvoltage and are attributable to the trapping of the holes produced in impact ionization. These results suggest that the BV and overvoltage margin of GaN HEMTs in practical power switching can be significantly underestimated using the static BV.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102321647&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85102321647&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/LED.2021.3063360

DO - 10.1109/LED.2021.3063360

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85102321647

SN - 0741-3106

VL - 42

SP - 505

EP - 508

JO - IEEE Electron Device Letters

JF - IEEE Electron Device Letters

IS - 4

M1 - 9367212

ER -

True Breakdown Voltage and Overvoltage Margin of GaN Power HEMTs in Hard Switching

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this