Versatile Dynamic On-Resistance Test Bench for GaN Power Transistors with Considerations for Soft and Hard Switching, Time-Resolved Test, Packaged and On-Wafer Devices

In this work, we develop a dynamic
$R_{\text{ON}}$
test bench for GaN HEMT based on two half-bridge pulse generating circuits, enabling versatile selection of soft switching (SSW) and hard switching (HSW) test, allowing long-duration test, and supporting both packaged large-area devices and on-wafer small-size devices. For packaged devices, under SSW test, Schottky-gate p-GaN HEMT (SG-HEMT) exhibit a bell-shaped dynamic
$R_{\text{ON}}$
and
$V_{\text{DS}}$
curve, while the ohmic-gate p-GaN HEMT (GIT) and Si superjunction (SJ-) MOSFET exhibit stable dynamic RON. Under HSW test, the dynamic
$R_{\text{ON}}$
of SG-HEMT and GIT are both slightly higher than SSW test. The hard-switching energy
$(E_{\text{HSW}})$
is controlled by a capacitor C
HSW
. During 1-hour continuous SSW and HSW test, the dynamic
$R_{\text{ON}}$
of GaN HEMT increases gradually and saturates. The on-wafer device in this work is an active-passivation HEMT (AP-HEMT) with
$W_{\mathrm{G}}=10 \mu \mathrm{m}$
. The SSW dynamic RON of AP-HEMT, extracted with a delay time of
$\sim 20\ \mu \mathrm{s}$
, is comparable to that of the-state-of-the-art commercial GaN transistor using the same testing condition.