State Of The Art 1.7kV Lateral Gan HEMTs, An Alternative To SiC

In this work, we demonstrate industry’s first, true 1.7kV -rated lateral GaN HEMT with state of the art switching and transient overvoltage capability suitable for automotive and industrial applications. Based on the PowiGaN™ technology platform of Power Integrations, the 1.7kV GaN HEMT shows stable off-state leakage beyond 2.5kV with a typical breakdown voltage of 3kV. Reliable switching performance up to peak VDS of 1.45kV with stable RDSON has been demonstrated in lateral GaN HEMTs for the first time in this work. Further, reliability qualification data through 1000Hrs of HTRB, THBT and DHTOL stress tests is presented demonstrating the field readiness of the 1.7kV GaN HEMT. Performance of the 1.7kV GaN HEMT in a power conversion application was evaluated in a 60W isolated flyback power supply and results comparable to an equivalent SiC power switch were observed for key performance metrics (efficiency, thermals) under a wide range of input and load conditions. Our work demonstrates the potential of 1.7kV lateral GaN HEMT as a cost-effective alternative to SiC in high voltage applications.