Resonances on GaN-on-Si Epitaxies: A Source of Output Capacitance Losses in Power HEMTs

Abstract

GaN-on-Si high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) exhibit excellent properties for efficient power conversion. Nevertheless, a considerable energy loss associated with the charging and discharging of the output capacitance ( C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">OSS</sub> ) in these transistors severely limits their application at high switching frequencies. In this work we report the observation of unexpected resonances in GaN-on-Si HEMTs. These high-frequency resonances lead to considerable energy losses in fast charging and discharging of the C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">OSS</sub> during switching transients. We propose a simple wafer-level measurement technique to evaluate such losses at the epitaxy level, prior to the transistor fabrication. Experimental results from this technique revealed that the Silicon substrate is the main origin of these losses. Such wafer-level evaluation of C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> OSS</sub> losses opens opportunities to characterize and optimize epitaxies for future power devices, especially those operating at high switching frequencies.