Challenges and Opportunities for High-Power and High-Frequency AlGaN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistor (HEMT) Applications: A Review

Abstract

The emergence of gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistor (GaN HEMT) devices has the potential to deliver high power and high frequency with performances surpassing mainstream silicon and other advanced semiconductor field-effect transistor (FET) technologies. Nevertheless, HEMT devices suffer from certain parasitic and reliability concerns that limit their performance. This paper aims to review the latest experimental evidence regarding HEMT technologies on the parasitic issues that affect aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN)/GaN HEMTs. The first part of this review provides a brief introduction to AlGaN/GaN HEMT technologies, and the second part outlines the challenges often faced during HEMT fabrication, such as normally-on operation, self-heating effects, current collapse, peak electric field distribution, gate leakages, and high ohmic contact resistance. Finally, a number of effective approaches to enhancing the device’s performance are addressed.

An industrial design of 400 V – 48 V, 98.2% peak efficient charger using E‐mode GaN technology with wide operating ranges for xEV applications

“…It consists of 8‐GaN switches at primary side of converter—1 and converter—2, and the manufacturing specifications of GaN switch GS66508T is tabulated in Table 2 24–26 . The extreme features of E‐mode GaN transistor is having an upper cooled technology which offers low drain resistance and other features are listed in References 27–29. TMS320F28335 is considered as digital signal processor (DSP) controller for iL 2 C converter, and the actual protype is built as per the modeling parameters, that is, L m 1 and L m 2 = 23 μH, L r 1 and L r 1 = 21 μH, C r 1 and C r 1 = 56 nF, filter capacitor C 0 = 100 μF, respectively.…”

Fractional order capacitance behavior due to hysteresis effect of ferroelectric material on GaN HEMT devices

“…In recent years, gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) as active solid‐state devices have garnered escalating interest within the semiconductor industry. This heightened prominence can be attributed to their exceptional performance characteristics, particularly in applications necessitating high‐power and high‐frequency capabilities 1,2 . These devices exhibit enhancements in breakdown voltage, electron mobility, saturation velocity, parasitic capacitance, and frequency responsiveness 3 .…”

Simple Low-Temperature GaN/Diamond Bonding Process with an Atomically Thin Intermediate Layer

“…Owing to their excellent properties, such as breakdown voltage and electron sheet charge densities, AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are gaining more attention for next-generation networks. − Because of the demand for high-power and high-frequency operation, as well as miniaturization, the power density has rapidly increased to ∼10 5 W/cm 2 , exceeding that on the surface of the sun (∼10 3 W/cm 2 ) . Thus, a severe self-heating effect degrades device performance and reliability, limits power output capability, and decreases device lifetime. , To overcome this problem, many researchers have studied the integration of GaN devices with a diamond heat spreader, − which can provide three times larger performance than that of GaN devices fabricated on SiC substrates . Simulation and modeling indicate that 27% of the thermal resistance is attributed to the thermal boundary resistance (TBR) at the GaN/diamond interface when a 40 μm gate pitch device is bonded to a single-crystalline diamond (SCD) .…”