TABLE OF CONTENTS L.S.McCarthy
Electrical And Computer Engineering Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
mccarthy@ece.ucsb.edu
N-Q.Zhang,
Electrical And Computer Engineering Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
Currently with RF Micro Devices Charlotte, NC
H.Xing,
Electrical And Computer Engineering Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
B.Moran, S.DenBaars
Electrical And Computer Engineering Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
Materials Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
U.K.Mishra
Electrical And Computer Engineering Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
The use of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs and HBTs for switching power supplies is explored. With its high electron velocities and breakdown fields, GaN has great potential for power switching. The field-plate HEMT increased breakdown voltages by 20% to 570 V by reducing the peak field at the drain-side edge of the gate. The use of a gate insulator is also investigated, using both JVD SiO 2 and e-beam evaporated SiO 2 to reduce gate leakage, increasing breakdown voltages to 1050 V and 1300 V respectively. The power device figure of merit (FOM) for these devices:
, is the highest reported for switching devices. To reduce trapping effects, reactively sputtered SiN x is used as a passivant, resulting in a switching time of less than 30 ns for devices blocking over 110 V with a drain current of 1.4 A under resistive load conditions. Dynamic load results are also presented.
The development of HBTs for switching applications included the...
