Title :
GaN power electronics
Author :
Lu, Bin ; Piedra, Daniel ; Palacios, Tomás
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
Between 5 and 10% of the world´s electricity is wasted as dissipated heat in the power electronic circuits needed, for example, in computer power supplies, motor drives or the power inverters of photovoltaic systems. This paper describes how the unique properties of GaN enables a new generation of power transistors has the potential to reduce by at least an order of magnitude the cost, volume and losses of power electronic systems. We will describe three key technologies: Schottky drain contacts and substrate removal to increase the breakdown voltage, and a dual-gate device with superior enhancement-mode characteristics.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; Schottky barriers; cooling; gallium compounds; power supply circuits; power transistors; semiconductor device breakdown; GaN; Schottky drain contact; breakdown voltage; dual-gate device; enhancement-mode characteristic; heat dissipation; power electronic circuit; power transistor; substrate removal; Aluminum gallium nitride; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; Logic gates; Power electronics; Silicon; Substrates;
Conference_Titel :
Advanced Semiconductor Devices & Microsystems (ASDAM), 2010 8th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Smolenice
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-8574-1
DOI :
10.1109/ASDAM.2010.5666311
