The low thermal conductivity of Ga 2 O 3 has arguably been the most serious concern for Ga 2 O 3 power and RF devices. Despite many simulation studies, there is no experimental report on the thermal resistance of a large-area, packaged Ga 2 O 3 device. This work fills this gap by demonstrating a 15-A double-side packaged Ga 2 O 3 Schottky barrier diode (SBD) and measuring its junctionto-case thermal resistance (R θJC ) in the bottom-side-and junction-side-cooling configurations. The R θJC characterization is based on the transient dual interface method, i.e., JEDEC 51-14 standard. The R θJC of the junction-and bottom-cooled Ga 2 O 3 SBD was measured to be 0.5 K/W and 1.43 K/W, respectively, with the former R θJC lower than that of similarly-rated commercial SiC SBDs. This low R θJC is attributable to the heat extraction directly from the Schottky junction instead of through the Ga 2 O 3 chip. The R θJC lower than that of commercial SiC devices proves the viability of Ga 2 O 3 devices for high-power applications and manifest the significance of proper packaging for their thermal management.

Ultra-wide bandgap gallium oxide (Ga2O3) devices have recently emerged as promising candidates for power and RF electronics. The low thermal conductivity of Ga2O3 has arguably been the most serious concern for these devices. Despite many simulation studies, there still lacks an experimental report on the thermal resistance and electrothermal ruggedness of a large-area, packaged Ga2O3 device. Recently, our team for the first time demonstrated largearea Ga2O3 devices with different packaging configurations and measured the thermal resistance and surge current capabilities of these packaged Ga2O3 devices. This paper reviews the key results in our efforts. It is shown that, contrary to some popular belief, Ga2O3 devices with proper packaging can achieve high thermal performance in both short transients and the steady state. The double-side-packaged Ga2O3 Schottky rectifiers show a junctionto-case thermal resistance lower than that of the similarly-rated commercial SiC Schottky rectifiers. In addition, these Ga2O3 rectifiers can survive a higher peak surge current as compared to SiC rectifiers. The critical enabler for these excellent performances is the direct junction cooling with minimal heat going through the Ga2O3 chip. Our work proves the viability of Ga2O3 devices for high power applications and manifests the significance of packaging for their die-level thermal management.

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