Building Blocks for GaN Power Switches
December 28, 2015 | AIP.orgEstimated reading time: 4 minutes
A team of engineers from Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame and the semiconductor company IQE has created gallium nitride (GaN) power diodes capable of serving as the building blocks for future GaN power switches — with applications spanning nearly all electronics products and electricity distribution infrastructures.
Power semiconductor devices are a critical part of the energy infrastructure — all electronics rely on them to control or convert electrical energy. Silicon-based semiconductors are rapidly approaching their performance limits within electronics, so materials such as GaN are being explored as potential replacements that may render silicon switches obsolete.
But along with having many desirable features as a material, GaN is notorious for its defects and reliability issues. So the team zeroed in on devices based on GaN with record-low defect concentrations to probe GaN’s ultimate performance limits for power electronics. They describe their results in a paper in the journal Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing.
“Our engineering goal is to develop inexpensive, reliable, high-efficiency switches to condition electricity — from where it’s generated to where it’s consumed within electric power systems — to replace generations-old, bulky, and inefficient technologies,” said Zongyang Hu, a postdoc working in Professor Grace Huili Xing’s research group within the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. “GaN-based power devices are enabling technologies to achieve this goal.”
The team examined semiconductor p-n junctions, made by joining p-type (free holes) and n-type (free electrons) semiconductor materials, which have direct applications in solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), rectifiers in circuits, and numerous variations in more complex devices such as power transistors. “For our work, high-voltage p-n junction diodes are used to probe the material properties of GaN,” Hu explained.
To describe how much the device’s current-voltage characteristics deviate from the ideal case in a defect-free semiconductor system, the team uses a “diode ideality factor.” This is “an extremely sensitive indicator of the bulk defects, interface and surface defects, and resistance of the device,” he added.
Defects exist within all materials, but at varying levels. “So one parameter we used to effectively describe the defect level in a material is the Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination lifetime,” Hu said.
Page 1 of 2
Suggested Items
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
05/03/2024 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007This week’s most important news is strategic—and telling. When one puts together the IPC industry reports, we simply have to include the recent conversation with Shawn DuBravac and Tom Kastner. On the design side, check out the latest “On The Line With…” podcast featuring Brad Griffin from Cadence Design Systems, discussing SI and PI in the realm of intelligent system design.
IMI Welcomes New CEO
05/03/2024 | IMIIntegrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. (IMI),The IMI Board of Directors announced, in a disclosure dated April 25, 2024, the appointment of Louis Sylvester Hughes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Electronics Industry Sentiment Rose in April, Hitting New High
05/02/2024 | IPCApril 2024 marked the third consecutive month of sentiment growth among electronics manufacturers. When asked if they expected labor costs for hourly workers to rise over the next month, manufacturers in the United States, Mexico, and Europe predicted a five percent increase, while manufacturers in Asia predicted a slightly lower four percent increase.
iNEMI Names Grace O'Malley CTO
05/02/2024 | iNEMIThe Board of Directors of the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) has named Grace O'Malley Chief Technical Officer (CTO).
ZESTRON Academy Launches 2024 Advanced Packaging & Power Electronics Webinar Series
05/01/2024 | ZESTRONZESTRON, the leading global provider of high-precision cleaning products, services, and training solutions in the electronics manufacturing and semiconductor industries, proudly announces the launch of its highly anticipated webinar series on Advanced Packaging & Power Electronics, a webinar series on the latest innovations, cleaning, and corrosion challenges.