Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD), the fabless, clean-tech semiconductor company that develops a range of energy-efficient GaN-based power devices to make greener electronics possible, has announced that independent, third-party research by leading academic research establishment, Virginia Tech University, demonstrates that the CGD’s ICeGaN™ gallium-nitride (GaN) technology is more reliable and robust than other GaN platforms. The paper, entitled ‘A GaN HEMT with Exceptional Gate Over-Voltage Robustness’, presented by researchers from Virginia Tech and Daniel Popa, Director of Innovation & Research, CGD, provides experimental evidence that shows that ICeGaN HEMTs, enabled by smart protection circuitry, show an exceptionally high over-voltage margin of over 70 V, which is comparable to state-of-the-art traditional silicon devices, and possibly even higher.
ICeGaN HEMTS possess a unique set of intrinsic capabilities, that together elevate device reliability well above current state-of-the-art GaN devices from competitors, while approaching the ruggedness of state-of-the-art Si-based devices. In addition to the hugely elevated dynamic gate breakdown capability, enabled by the inclusion of a fully integrated GaN smart circuitry, and confirmed by the Virginia Tech research, ICeGaN technology has a higher voltage threshold of 3 V, higher voltage range (0 – 20 V), and a stronger gate voltage clamping action at lower temperatures.
More, a novel Miller-clamp design, also integrated within the smart ICeGaN circuitry, ensures immunity against high dV/dt and dI/dt events and obviates the need for negative gate voltages for turning-off (and keeping-off) the HEMT, which in turn reduces exposure to dynamic Ron stress.