GaN Technology Overview

Summary

Chapter 1 begins with the basic properties of gallium nitride as a semiconductor, and shows the reader how these properties can be used to create a superior power transistor with faster switching speed and smaller size compared with the aging silicon‐based power MOSFET. Depletion‐mode, and enhancement‐mode, vertical and lateral device structures are analyzed, and the process steps used to grow GaN heterostructures and fabricate commercial enhancement‐mode transistors are shown. Packaged as well as chip‐scale device formats are shown. There is also a discussion on GaN integrated circuits and their evolution as a pre‐eminent semiconductor platform. In later chapters these basic concepts are tied to the specific electrical and thermal properties of GaN transistors, and are applied to making more efficient power conversion circuits and systems.