An experimentally driven assessment of the dynamic-on resistance in correlation to other performance indicators in commercial Gallium Nitride power devices

This work provides an experimentally driven performance comparison of commercial Gallium Nitride on Silicon (GaN-on-Si) power devices rated 600-650V at room and elevated temperatures with the focus being in assessing the on resistance (RON) increase due to hard switching in correlation to other performance indicators. Device technologies evaluated include the Enhancement (E-mode) AlGaN/GaN Hybrid Drain p-GaN layer Gate Injection Transistor (p-GaN HD-GIT), the cascode AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (cascode HEMT). For the dynamic RON analysis, a special setup was utilized which allows synchronized drain and gate pulses, and the ability to switch from OFF to ON in as little as 20µs. The ability to apply a wide range of voltage levels, stress duration and temperature enabled measurable increase in the dynamic RON in both the cascode HEMT and the p-GaN HD-GIT. Nonetheless, the results highlight a strong difference in their robustness.