Characterization and Enhancement of High-Voltage Cascode GaN Devices

Author

Xiucheng Huang ; Zhengyang Liu ; Lee, Fred C. ; Qiang Li

Author_Institution

Bradley Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Virginia Polytech. Inst. & State Univ., Blacksburg, VA, USA

Volume

62

Issue

2

fYear

2015

fDate

Feb. 2015

Firstpage

270

Lastpage

277

Abstract

Gallium nitride (GaN) devices are gathering momentum, with a number of recent market introductions for a wide range of applications such as point-of-load converters, OFF-line switching power supplies, battery chargers, and motor drives. This paper studies the basic characteristics of a 600 V cascode GaN switch, such as voltage distribution during the turn-ON and turn-OFF transition. The switching loss mechanism of the cascode GaN switch is analyzed in detail, including the impact of the package parasitic inductance in both hard- and soft-switching modes. A soft-switching 5 MHz boost converter is developed and shows the advantages and the potential of the cascode GaN.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium compounds; power semiconductor switches; wide band gap semiconductors; zero current switching; zero voltage switching; GaN; battery chargers; boost converter; cascode GaN switch; frequency 5 MHz; gallium nitride devices; hard switching modes; high voltage cascode GaN devices; motor drives; off-line switching power supplies; package parasitic inductance; point-of-load converters; soft switching modes; voltage 600 V; voltage distribution; Capacitors; Gallium nitride; MOSFET; Silicon; Switches; Switching loss; Zero voltage switching; Avalanche; cascode; gallium nitride (GaN); high frequency; packaging; soft-switching; voltage distribution;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2014.2358534

Filename

6909037