High-voltage Power Switching Research Articles

(Electronics and Photonics Division Award) Research Advances Wide- and Ultrawide-Bandgap Power Switching Devices

Wide bandgap semiconductors such as SiC and GaN (WBG) and emerging ultrawide-bandgap materials such as Ga2O3, AlGaN, and Diamond (UWBG) represent the next-generation materials for high performance medium voltage and high voltage power switch technology. Such devices have a wide range of immediate Naval applications, including high-power satellite communications and radar, unmanned underwater and aerial vehicles, ship drive components, and hybrid vehicle inverters. Vertical SiC power device technology has matured rapidly over the past two decades, owing to advances in substrates, a fundamental understanding of epitaxial growth to eliminate performance-limiting defects, as well as device design breakthroughs. This has enabled breakthroughs in highly integrated module design for medium voltage power conversion with switching frequency >100 kHz. In parallel, lateral GaN-based high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technology has been highly successful for RF power amplifiers and is well positioned to supersede GaAs-based microwave circuits. Recently, GaN-based vertical and lateral power devices have attracted significant interest due to promising device results coupled with progress in native substrate, epitaxial growth, and processing technology developments. This seminar will present an overview of the WBG/UWBG power device efforts at NRL. This research has four primary focus areas – 1) thermal management in III-N power device structures by diamond thin film integration, 2) characterization of substrate materials and homoepitaxial layers used for drift regions of power devices identify appropriate specifications and benchmark performance, 3) process module development, particularly for selective area doping by ion implantation, and 4) pilot production manufacturing of 1.2kV-class PiN diodes including reliability assessments to identify and mitigate performance limiting defects.

Quality Control of Doppler Spectra from a Vertically Pointing, S-Band Profiling Radar

Abstract This study describes a novel combination of methods to remove spurious spectral peaks, or “spurs,” from Doppler spectra produced by a vertically pointing, S-band radar. The University of Massachusetts S-band frequency-modulated, continuous-wave radar (UMass FMCW) was deployed to monitor the growth of the CBL over northern Alabama during the VORTEX–Southeast field campaign in 2016. The Doppler spectra contained spurs caused by high-voltage switching power supplies in the traveling wave tube amplifier. In the original data-processing scheme for this radar, a median filtering method was used to eliminate most of the spurs, but the largest ones persisted, which significantly degraded the quality of derived radar moments (e.g., reflectivity, Doppler velocity, and spectrum width) and hindered further analysis of these data (e.g., hydrometeor classification and boundary layer height tracking). Our technique for removing the spurs consists of three steps: (i) a Laplacian filter identifies and masks peaks in the spectra that are characteristic of the spurs in shape and amplitude, (ii) an in-painting method then fills in the masked area based on surrounding data, and (iii) the moments data (e.g., reflectivity, Doppler velocity, and spectrum width) are then recomputed using a coherent power technique. This combination of techniques was more effective than the median filter at removing the largest spurs from the Doppler spectra and preserved more of the underlying Doppler spectral structure of the scatterers. Performance of both the median-filter and the in-painting methods is assessed through statistical analysis of the spectral power differences. Downstream products, such as boundary layer height detection, are more easily derived from the recomputed moments. Significance Statement This manuscript describes a novel combination of image and signal processing techniques used to recover meteorological observations from corrupted Doppler radar spectra. This successful recovery of meteorologically significant information illustrates the importance of retaining Doppler spectra when practical. In seeking solutions to data quality issues, the atmospheric science community should remain cognizant of promising techniques offered by other disciplines. We present this data rescue study as an example to the meteorological community.

Gate Voltage Closed-Loop Regulation Technique for High-Voltage Super-Cascode Power Switches

Gate Voltage Closed-Loop Regulation Technique for High-Voltage Super-Cascode Power Switches

Investigation of Defect Generation and Propagation in Electrically and Photonically Stressed Silicon Carbide

A highly efficient, high-voltage power switching technology, the Optical Transconductance Varistor (OTV) is being developed based on the photoconductive property of 6H-SiC. The behavior of the dislocations in 6H-SiC under the application of voltage and laser in such devices is of particular interest. In this study, both ex-situ and in-situ synchrotron X-ray topography were applied to characterize dislocations and investigate their behaviors when the sample was electrically and photonically stressed. Threading dislocations (TDs) and basal plane dislocations (BPDs) were revealed in transmission topographs and grazing topographs. When the samples were connected to external voltage ranging from 1kV to 4kV, there were no observable signs of dislocation movement. This indicates that the energy released from the transitioning of Vanadium states is lower than the activation energy for dislocation gliding.

Investigation of 4H-SiC UMOSFET Architectures for High Voltage and High Speed Power Switching Applications

A comparative TCAD (Technology Computer Aided Design) simulation study of various 4H-SiC trench gate MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) (or U-shaped trench gate MOSFET abbreviated for UMOSFET) architectures for high voltage and high-speed switching applications is reported. The DC (Direct Current) and AC (Alternating Current) characteristics of the different trench gate structures are investigated. Particularly, compared to conventional 4H-SiC UMOSFETs, the breakdown voltage of the UMOSFET having a p-type implanted bottom shield is increased by 44%. However, due to the extra JFET (Junction Field Effect Transistor) region, the specific on resistance also increases by 6%. Furthermore, under 1000 V drain bias, the peak electric field at the bottom oxide of the shielded trench gate is below 0.3 MV/cm. In contrast, the peak electric field of conventional UMOSFETs can be as high as 8 MV/cm, which might cause reliability issues. On the other hand, when the bottom oxide thickness of the trench gate is increased, the UMOSFET exhibits 22% less total gate charge, leading to 76% and 71% shorter switching delay time, compared to conventional UMOSFETs and bottom shield UMOSFETs, respectively. As revealed by the simulation results, the UMOSFETs with the p-type implanted bottom shield or thick bottom oxide are advantageous for high voltage and high-speed power switching applications.

Epitaxial growth of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on patterned Si substrate for high voltage power switching applications

In this work, a series of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) have been grown on patterned (Al)GaN-on-Si seed layers by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) to study the effect of the (Al)GaN buffer thickness and its aluminum content on the vertical breakdown voltage. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis performed on the GaN seed layers shows a perfectly smooth, MOCVD-like morphology with a threading dislocation density (TDD) around 2 × 109 cm−2. We succeeded to regrow up to 10 μm and 5 μm crack-free GaN + HEMT and Al0.30G0.70N + HEMT structures, respectively and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed limited lateral growth on mesas with few microscopic defects while AFM show the same surface morphology of HEMT structures as ones grown on planar substrates. NiAu Schottky contacts were deposited on the regrown (Al)GaN HEMTs as well as on (Al)GaN seed layer structures. No breakdown was noticed up to 200 V for the regrown Al0.30Ga0.70N (3 μm) HEMT and the GaN seed layer structures and the leakage current remained in the range of 1 nA. However, the leakage current in the regrown GaN (5 μm) structure reached rapidly 1 mA. Such a high leakage was not noticed for non-patterned devices. Thus, it is possibly attributed to silicon contamination in the regrown GaN layer. On the other hand, the absence of noticeable leakage in the regrown 3 μm thick Al-rich AlGaN buffer HEMT opens the way to a new competitive solution for high power electronics applications on silicon substrate.

Switch-Mode MOSFETs for Class A Radio Frequency Amplification

Vertical double diffused MOSFETs (“VDMOSFETs”) developed for switching power supplies were successfully used in high voltage, high frequency linear amplifier circuits. These high voltage power switches are surprisingly useful for linear RF power amplifiers and transmitters. In most of their intended applications such as in switching power supplies or switched digital amplifiers, VDMOSFETs are pulsed by a high voltage and the pulsed output is heavily filtered. This avoids the linear region of the VDMOSFET, which normally limits the efficiency to a theoretical maximum of 25%. However, in a search of MOSFETs for high voltage linear amplification using Class A bias without heavy use of filtering, these low-cost switching MOSFETs were found to work best, if limited to radio frequencies above 1.5 MHz. Conditions, and in particular, very low impedance driving of the MOSFET gate, were discovered that gave efficiencies of 70%, rivaling that of non-linear pulse techniques such as Class C or Class D operation. The beneficial effect of linear operation combined with high efficiency at a high voltage is suggested to arise from Miller capacitance. This was only seen at radio frequencies and with the larger current, higher gate capacitance devices. Switching MOSFETs as described here should be considered alongside dedicated RF MOSFETs such as the more expensive LD (lateral diffused) MOSFET when working with RF power.

Impact of growth parameters on the background doping of GaN films grown by ammonia and plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy for high-voltage vertical power switches

We report on ammonia and plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (NH3-MBE and PAMBE) grown GaN layers with a low net carrier concentration (Nnet). Growth parameters, such as growth rate, V–III ratio, and plasma power, were investigated on different substrates to study their impact on surface morphology and background doping levels using atomic force microscopy and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements, respectively. The elevated growth rates are especially interesting for vertical power switches, requiring very thick drift regions (over 10 μm) with low background concentrations. For our NH3-MBE-grown layers, Nnet shows an almost linear increase with the growth rate. Using a freestanding substrate and at a fast growth rate of 1.4 μm hr−1, a Nnet value as low as 1 × 1015 cm−3 was achieved. For samples grown via PAMBE, the lowest Nnet among samples grown under a Ga adlayer was 2 × 1016 cm−3 for a growth rate of 0.32 μm h−1 on a GaN-on-sapphire template. The results support the use of MBE for growing high-quality GaN material with reasonably fast growth rates maintaining low background doping levels for high-voltage vertical power electronic devices.

Research on Live Detection Technology of Contact Ablation Degree of Power High Voltage Reactive Power Switching Switch

In power system, high voltage reactive power switching switch is an important control unit, which is an important tool to start the connection of power equipment. In order to ensure the safe operation of high-voltage reactive power switching switch, this paper proposes a new method for live detection of contact ablation degree of high-voltage reactive power switching switch to solve the lack of effective detection and evaluation means of contact ablation degree of high-voltage reactive power switching switch in power system. During the opening and closing process of high voltage reactive power switching switch, RF electromagnetic wave signal will be radiated, which contains information reflecting the ablation degree of contact. In this paper, through the detection and analysis of electromagnetic wave signal, the detection of contact ablation degree of high voltage reactive power switching switch is realized. This paper analyzes the influencing factors of radiated electromagnetic wave in the process of circuit breaker opening and closing. The anti-interference method of electromagnetic wave field detection is used to realize the live detection of contact ablation degree of high voltage reactive power switching switch. It effectively solves the problem of mutation detection of contact ablation degree of high voltage reactive power switching switch, and greatly improves the detection rate of contact ablation degree defects.

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering of In2O3/Sn Cold Sprayed Composite Target.

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) was used for deposition of indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent thin films at low substrate temperature. A hybrid-type composite target was self-prepared by low-pressure cold spraying process. Prior to spraying In2O3 and oxidized Sn powders were mixed in a volume ratio of 3:1. Composite In2O3/Sn coating had a mean thickness of 900 µm. HiPIMS process was performed in various mixtures of Ar:O2: (i) 100:0 vol.%, (ii) 90:10 vol.%, (iii) 75:25 vol.%, (iv) 50:50 vol.%, and (v) 0:100 vol.%. Oxygen rich atmosphere was necessary to oxidize tin atoms. Self-design, simple high voltage power switch capable of charging the 20 µF capacitor bank from external high voltage power supply worked as a power supply for an unbalanced magnetron source. ITO thin films with thickness in the range of 30–40 nm were obtained after 300 deposition pulses of 900 V and deposition time of 900 s. The highest transmission of 88% at λ = 550 nm provided 0:100 vol. % Ar:O2 mixture, together with the lowest resistivity of 0.03 Ω·cm.

Study of the operating modes of the high voltage power source for barrier type discharge excitation

The issues related to the features of operation and modes setting of a high-voltage switching power source based on a sequential autonomous resonant inverter with reverse diodes used to excite an atmospheric pressure barrier type discharge are discussed in the article. It is indicated that the characteristic features of the autonomous resonant inverters operation are the occurrence of damped voltage fluctuations in the LC circuit of the inverter, as well as the dependence of the output alternating voltage on the ratio of the inverter operating frequency (thyristor switching frequency) to the natural resonant frequency of the LC circuit. Depending on this ratio, the inverter can operate in discontinuous, boundary and continuous current mode. The amplitude and shape of the inverter output voltage were controlled using a 1:1000 voltage divider with a C1-65A oscilloscope. The shape of the gate trigger pulses was obtained using a C1-167 oscilloscope. It is established that when the gate trigger pulses are asymmetrical relative to each other due to the operation features of the step-up transformers, the value of the alternating high-voltage at the inverter output is insufficient to excite the atmospheric pressure barrier type discharge. In the case of the gate trigger pulses symmetry, the output voltage of the inverter stage reaches the values required for the breakdown of the dielectric medium. Oscillograms of the inverter output voltage while adjusting its operating frequency are obtained. It is shown that the amplitude value of the voltage at the gas-discharge load increases as the operating frequency of the inverter increases. For the gate trigger pulses frequency of 250 Hz the value of the inverter output voltage amplitude was 3.4 kV, for 460 Hz – 4.0 kV, and for 550 Hz – 4.2 kV.

A Study on the Impact of Mid-Gap Defects on Vertical GaN Diodes

GaN is a favorable martial for future efficient high voltage power switches. GaN has not dominated the power electronics market due to immature substrate, homoepitaxial growth, and immature processing technology. Understanding the impact of the substrate and homoepitaxial growth on the device performance is crucial for boosting the performance of GaN. In this work, we studied vertical GaN PiN diodes that were fabricated on non-homogenous Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) substrates from two different vendors. We show that defects which stemmed from growth techniques manifest themselves as leakage hubs. Different non-homogenous substrates showed different distribution of those defects spatially with the lesser quality substrates clustering those defects in clusters that causes pre-mature breakdown. Energetically these defects are mostly mid-gap around 1.8Ev with light emission spans from 450nm to 700nm. Photon emission spectrometry and hyperspectral electroluminescence were used to locate these defects spatially and energetically.

Bonding GaN on high thermal conductivity graphite composite with adequate interfacial thermal conductance for high power electronics applications

We demonstrate an efficient heat transport hybrid structure by means of bonding GaN on a high thermal conductivity graphite composite (GC). The heterogeneous GaN/GC of the fine bonding interface, without air voids and cracks, is confirmed. More interestingly, GaN bonded on GC is stress-free and quite beneficial for device performance, the degradation of which is partially subject to the stress induced by the fabrication and packaging processes. Moreover, the thermal boundary conductance (TBC) across the GaN/GC interface is accurately estimated to be approximately 67 MW/m2K, based on the measured TBC between Ti and GC, in excellent agreement with the prediction using the corrected diffuse mismatch model. According to the finite element modeling results, the GaN-on-GC power transistor shows superiority and possesses greatly improved thermal performance due to the high thermal conductivity of GC and adequate TBC across the GaN/GC interface, compared to the commercially available GaN-on-SiC and GaN-on-Si transistors. Our findings highlight the potential of GC as a promising alternative heat spreading substrate candidate for thermal management applications in GaN-based next-generation high power electronics, including radio frequency amplifiers, high voltage power switches, and high breakdown voltage diodes.

Dynamic Switching of SiC Power MOSFETs Based on Analytical Subcircuit Model

Compared to silicon counterparts, silicon carbide (SiC) power mosfet s have lower on -state resistance and faster switching speed, which in turn makes them better candidates for high-voltage power switching applications. This creates a growing need to develop device models for such SiC power devices. The models that are currently being used are mostly physics-based models, which require all the physical parameters of the device and are not so suitable for real time hardware in loop simulations. In this article, we show a subcircuit model based on the analytical study using nonlinear curve fitting method for modeling of dynamic switching behavior. Using a 1.2 kV, 17 A mosfet as a testbed, this subcircuit model is validated by implementing the model into Synopsys Saber in comparison with the measured dc characteristics, the Saber mosfet Tool model, and the manufacturer's model. The switching behavior of the device at 800 V/17 A and 800 V/5.5 A based on the subcircuit model were also compared and validated with experimental measurements, the Saber mosfet model, and manufacturer's model. Excellent agreements were achieved on both dc characteristics and switching behaviors. On the LTspice platform, the computation time of the analytical subcircuit model is 4.5 times faster than the manufacturer's model. This subcircuit model is adoptable and suitable for real time hardware in loop simulations and power converter designs .

Dynamic Voltage Balancing for the High-Voltage SiC Super-Cascode Power Switch

Presented in this paper is an optimization method to improve the dynamic performance of high-voltage super-cascode power switches (SCPSs) by implementing silicon carbide (SiC) junction field-effect transistor (JFET). The basic operating principle of SCPS is explained at the beginning of the paper. Equivalent circuit models are outlined next, with equations describing the voltage distribution among each SiC JFET during switching transients. Based on the sensitivity analysis, a component optimization method for balancing the SCPS internal voltage is proposed, which effectively eliminates the overvoltage. This significantly reduces the switching loss and the chance of diode avalanche. Compared with the nonoptimized case, the turn-on loss of the SCPS is reduced to 8.85%, and the turn-off loss reduces to 48.4%.

A Single-Phase Nine-Level Boost Inverter

A novel single-phase nine-level boost inverter is proposed in this paper. The proposed inverter has an output voltage which is higher than the input voltage by switching capacitors in series and in parallel. The maximum output voltage of the proposed inverter is determined by using the boost converter circuit, which has been integrated into the circuit. The proposed topology is able to invert the multilevel voltage with the high step-up output voltage, simple structure and fewer power switches. In this paper, the circuit configuration, the operating principle, and the output voltage expression have been derived. The proposed converter has been verified by simulation and experiment with the help of PSIM software and a laboratory prototype. The experimental results match the theoretical calculation and the simulation results.

A Novel 700 V Monolithically Integrated Si-GaN Cascoded Field Effect Transistor

In this letter, a novel monolithically integrated Si-GaN cascoded FET is designed and experimentally demonstrated for high-voltage power switching applications. The device is formed by monolithically connecting a low-voltage Si MOSFET and a high-voltage normally-on GaN MIS-HEMT on the same substrate in the cascode configuration. The interconnection distance is $50~\mu \text{m}$ which is only 2.5% of that of the conventional two-chip co-package approach (~2 mm). The fabricated cascoded FET features normally-off functionalities with a threshold voltage of 3.2 V, a drive current of 1850 A/cm2 (630 mA/mm) at the gate bias of 15 V, a gate swing of 20 V, a specific on-resistance of $3.3\;\text {m}\Omega \cdot \text {cm}^{2}$ and a breakdown voltage of 696 V.

GaN Power Devices – Current Status and Future Directions

Wide bandgap semiconductors such as SiC and GaN represent the next-generation materials for high performance medium voltage and high voltage power switch technology. Vertical SiC power device technology has matured rapidly over the past two decades, owing to advances in substrates, a fundamental understanding of epitaxial growth to eliminate performance-limiting defects, as well as device design breakthroughs. In parallel, lateral GaN-based high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technology has been highly successful for RF power amplifiers and is well positioned to supersede GaAs-based microwave circuits. Recently, GaN-based vertical and lateral power devices have attracted significant interest due to promising device results coupled with progress in native substrate, epitaxial growth, and processing technology developments. In this article we will assess recent progress in GaN power devices and the building blocks for such devices as well as look toward the future as the material is pushed to the fundamental limits.

(Invited) Advances in SiC and GaN Power Device Development and Future Directions

As wide bandgap semiconductors, devices based on SiC and GaN represent critical next-generation medium voltage and high voltage power switch technology. SiC device technology has matured rapidly over the past two decades, owing to advances in substrate quality, a fundamental understanding of epitaxial growth to characterize defects and identify and eliminate performance-limiting defects such as basal plane dislocations, and device breakthroughs such as the junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diode and DMOSFET. While lateral GaN-based HEMT technology has been highly successful for RF power amplifiers and is well-positioned to supersede GaAs-based MMICs, advances in vertical power device technology has been limited due to the lack of high quality native substrates. As large area substrates have become available by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and ammonothermal growth, several fundamental vertical power devices have recently been realized, including Schottky diodes with edge termination, trench MOSFETs, and CAVETs. However, significant fundamental materials challenges currently limit device performance, specifically the realization of repeatable thick drift layers with low background doping as well as a reliable selective area planar process for p-type doping. In this presentation, an overview of SiC and GaN device development at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory will be summarized, first looking at SiC devices including the development of novel materials characterization techniques to understand the role of defects on device performance, reliability and failure analysis of devices, including BPD kinetics in PiN and MPS diodes, and novel device designs including grayscale termination processes, temperature compensated PiN diodes, and hybrid Si/SiC modules. Recent developments in GaN vertical device technology will also be presented, including the development of an ion implanted p-type doping process and preliminary materials characterization to understand the relationship between substrate quality, epitaxial layer quality, and device performance. Future directions for GaN device development enabled by the availability of bulk substrates will also be discussed, including implications for lateral devices, novel lateral device designs, and fundamental materials work based on the lessons learned from SiC.

16 kV, 75 kHz, 50% Duty Cycle, SiC Photonic Based Bulk Conduction Power Switch Development

A transconductance-like behavior similar to that of junction semiconductor devices is observed in photonically excited wide bandgap (WBG) semi-insulating material without a junction. This property offers the possibility of power electronic devices capable of virtually unlimited voltage and current carrying capability due to intrinsic electrical isolation of the controlling voltage from the switched high voltage. A proof of concept experiment demonstrated the transconductance-like property in burst mode switching to >16 kV, 50% duty cycle, and 75 kHz. Our eventual goal is to combine the light source, optics and the WBG material to form a compact module that is functionally equivalent to junction power electronic devices. In this paper, we present the background, our generalized approach for implementing photoconductive switching for potential applications to high repetition rate (>50 kHz), high voltage (>15 kV) power switching, our associated material measurements, and our path forward to multi-10s of ampere devices.