10000-Cycle/10-μs Short Circuit Operation in 650-V E-Mode p-GaN Gate HEMT With Schottky Source Extension

This article demonstrates superior short-circuit (SC) capability in a 650-V Schottky-type p-typegallium nitride (p-GaN) gate high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) with Schottky source extension (SSE). At SC condition with$V$${}_{\text{DS}}$/$V$${}_{\text {GS}} =400$/6V, the proposed device presents a much lower SC current peak (21 A) compared with the conventional device (34 A), since the SSE introduces a negative feedback mechanism that effectively suppresses the SC current. At 400-V single-pulse SC test, the SC withstand time (SCWT) of the proposed device is$190~\mu $s, obviously longer than that of the conventional device ($115~\mu $s). Under multipulse SC operation with$V$DS/$V$GS/${t} _{\text {pulse}} =400$V/6V/$10~\mu $s, the conventional device fails at the 3065th SC cycle and exhibits a noticeably worsened dynamic${R} _{\mathrm {on}}$performance after 3000-cycles SC stress. As a contrast, the proposed device survives >10000 SC cycles and exhibits negligible change in dynamic$R$${}_{\mathrm {on}}$performance. These breakthrough results suggest that the new GaN power transistor can realize SC robustness comparable to the-state-of-the-art silicon IGBTs, making it a promising solution for reliability-critical industrial applications where superior SC capability is required.