Abstract
Despite the superior working properties, GaN-based HEMTs and systems are still confronted with the threat of a transient ESD event, especially for the vulnerable gate structure of the p-GaN or MOS HEMTs. Therefore, there is still an urgent need for a bidirectional ESD protection diode to improve the ESD robustness of a GaN power system. In this study, an AlGaN/GaN ESD protection diode with bidirectional clamp capability was proposed and investigated. Through the combination of two floating gate electrodes and two pF-grade capacitors connected in parallel between anode or cathode electrodes and the adjacent floating gate electrodes (CGA (CGC)), the proposed diode could be triggered by a required voltage and possesses a high secondary breakdown current (IS) in both forward and reverse transient ESD events. Based on the experimental verification, it was found that the bidirectional triggering voltages (Vtrig) and IS of the proposed diode were strongly related to CGA (CGC). With CGA (CGC) increasing from 5 pF to 25 pF, Vtrig and IS decreased from ~18 V to ~7 V and from ~7 A to ~3 A, respectively. The diode’s high performance demonstrated a good reference for the ESD design of a GaN power system.
Highlights
GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) have attracted a great deal of research attention in high-power applications, owing to their low specific on-resistance, high breakdown voltage, high switching frequency and, especially, the more convenient integration (just as the GaN-based monolithic integrated circuits (MICs), which are characterized with low parasitic parameters and high performance) [1–6]
Despite the superior operation properties, the GaN-based HEMTs and MICs are still confronted with the threat of failure caused by a transient electrostatic discharge (ESD) event, especially for the vulnerable gate structure of the p-GaN HEMTs, metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) HEMTs and Schottky-gated GaN-based HEMTs
We comprehensively investigated the ESD robustness of the p-GaN HEMTs in different conditions [12]
Summary
GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) have attracted a great deal of research attention in high-power applications, owing to their low specific on-resistance, high breakdown voltage, high switching frequency and, especially, the more convenient integration (just as the GaN-based monolithic integrated circuits (MICs), which are characterized with low parasitic parameters and high performance) [1–6]. Despite the superior operation properties, the GaN-based HEMTs and MICs are still confronted with the threat of failure caused by a transient electrostatic discharge (ESD) event, especially for the vulnerable gate structure of the p-GaN HEMTs, metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) HEMTs and Schottky-gated GaN-based HEMTs. In some reports [7–11], it was comprehensively demonstrated that the Schottky-gated GaN-based HEMTs can withstand extremely high transient ESD voltages in the drain-to-source, drain-to-gate and gate-to-source conditions. Things go differently for the p-GaN (or MOS) HEMTs. We comprehensively investigated the ESD robustness of the p-GaN HEMTs in different conditions [12]. In drain-to-source and drain-to-gate conditions, the equivalent human body model (HBM)
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