GaN HEMT-Based >1-GHz Speed Low-Side Gate Driver and Switch Monolithic Process for 865-MHz Power Conversion Applications

Due to its remarkably high Johnson figure of merit, gallium nitride (GaN) has become the material of choice for applications requiring high output power at high frequencies. In this paper, we have reviewed high-speed switching work to date and we demonstrate a 28 V, 865-MHz switching speed step-down converter that can be applied to envelope tracking (ET). We report a GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology utilized to fabricate a gate driver IC at a switching speed > 1 GHz with <;95-ps transitions, monolithically integrated with a 100 V breakdown GaN power switch. The on-chip integration of the power switch and gate driver allows in-circuit characterization of the power switch switching speed. Using the integrated gate driver and switch, we report a slew rate of the power switch of 152 V/ns at 50 V, which enables a down converter IC capable of ET with over 50-MHz tracking bandwidth. This paper shows the first demonstration of a GaN low-side gate driver capable of > 1-GHz switching, monolithic integration with a 0.15-μm T-gate suitable for up to Ka-band operation, and a > 100 V breakdown voltage power switch on the same chip.