Abstract
A study of 1.7 kV normally-off p-GaN gate high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) on SiC substrates is presented. The fabricated p-GaN HEMT with a gate-drain spacing LGD = 5 µm exhibited a threshold voltage of 1.10 V, a maximum drain current of 235 mA/mm, an ON/OFF ratio of 108, and a breakdown voltage of 440 V. Benefiting from the semi-insulating and high-critical-electric-field substrate, the p-GaN HEMT with LGD = 23 µm achieved the remarkably high breakdown voltage of 1740 V with substrate grounded. This breakdown voltage is very high compared with the reported values for p-GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates with substrate grounded. The vertical breakdown voltage for the p-GaN-on-SiC material exceeded 3 kV with substrate grounded. In addition, the maximum drain current at 500 K was 48% of that at 300 K with a negligible threshold voltage shift. These results indicate the substantial potential of p-GaN gate HEMTs on SiC substrates for high-voltage power applications.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. 61925404), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62074122), Fundamental Research Plan (Grant No. JCKY2020110B010), and Major Projects of Shanxi Province (Grant No. 20201102012).
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Zhao, S., Zhang, J., Zhang, Y. et al. 1.7 kV normally-off p-GaN gate high-electron-mobility transistors on a semi-insulating SiC substrate. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 66, 122407 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-022-3475-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-022-3475-9