Challenges and opportunities for the next generation of power electronic devices
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. EST
Ahmad Zubair, Postdoctoral Associate
Microsystems Technology Laboratories
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
By 2030, about 80% of all United States electricity is expected to flow through power electronics and the market size is expected to exceed 1000 TW-unit per year from the current market size of 2 TW unit. This exponential growth will require power electronics devices and circuits with much higher efficiency and smaller form-factor than today’s silicon-based systems. III-Nitride semiconductors and other ultra-wide bandgap materials are ideal material systems for energy-efficient new generation of power electronics, thanks to the combination of excellent transport properties and the high critical electric field enabled by their wide bandgap.
Vertical FinFETs are promising high voltage switches for the next generation of high-frequency power electronics applications. Thanks to a nanostructured vertical fin channel, the device offers excellent electrostatic control, eliminating the need for epitaxial regrowth or p-type doping unlike other vertical power transistors. Vertical GaN FinFETs with 1200 V breakdown voltage (BV) and 5A current rating have been demonstrated recently on free-standing GaN substrate. The high current density of these devices, in combination with minimum parasitics, allow these devices to achieve beyond-state-of-the-art switching performance.
This talk will discuss the recent progress of GaN vertical power FinFETs on native GaN substrate highlighting the device and materials level opportunities as well as challenges to push performance limits of these devices. Despite this promising performance, the commercialization of these devices has been limited by the high cost ($50-$100/cm2) and small diameter (2-4 inch) of free-standing GaN substrates. The use of Si could potentially reduce the substrate cost by 1000x and enable heterogeneous integration. This talk will also discuss the recent efforts on the heterogeneous integration of GaN vertical power FinFETs on Si platform.
Attendees can join and participate in the series via Zoom. Meeting ID#: 860 986 455.