A GaN-Based Active Diode Circuit for Low-Loss Rectification

This work investigates a new approach of an active diode circuit. The concept is applied in a high-voltage GaN-on-Si Technology with p-GaN gate module. The GaN-based active diode includes a simple control with voltage zero detection. A significantly reduced forward voltage of the active diode is demonstrated in a half-wave rectification (230 VAC, 50 Hz). Compared with a diode in the same technology, a forward voltage reduction of 75% (from a forward current of 1A) is achieved and compared with other commercial diode types, a reduction of 33% (from an area-scaled forward current of 0.5 - 1 A/mm
²
) is achieved. At higher frequencies and at lower AC voltages, the active diode also shows an improved performance compared to conventional rectifier diodes. Thus, this concept offers an enormous potential for low-loss rectification and is suitable for a monolithic integration.