Emerging GaN Power Devices for Efficient & Compact Power Conversion

While Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices have dominated the wide bandgap landscape in the past 20 years, Gallium Nitride (GaN) power devices have also been the subject of numerous investigations and research work. Even though GaN lacks a bulk substrate, it can easily be grown on other substrates such as Silicon (Si). In this paper, extensive characterization of commercially available 100V to 650V GaN on Si power devices, using an extremely low inductance double pulse test circuit, are presented. The results and their impact on various industrial applications ranging from ultrasound power supplies, point of load (PoL) converters, microinverters, to hybrid electric vehicles' dc/dc converters are described.