SiC and GaN Wide Bandgap Technology Commercial Status

Wide bandgap (WBG) devices offer significant advantages for next generation military and commercial systems. SiC MESFETs currently achieve power densities of 4.0 W/mm with power added efficiencies in excess of 60% on a repeatable basis. GaN is also extremely promising as a next generation wide bandgap device. Cree currently offers a number of commercial products targeted at both broadband wireless and general-purpose markets. Results for two such products will be reviewed. SiC MESFETs and GaN HEMT MMICs are also offered through commercial MMIC foundry services using standard design rules and internally developed non-linear models. Using this MMIC process, results will be shown for two new commercial GaN MMIC products that have been developed for general-purpose applications in the 2.5-6.0 GHz and DC-6.0 GHz bands respectively. Additionally, preliminary results are shown for a 2-stage high efficiency S-band switch mode amplifier operating from 3.1-3.5 GHz. Significant progress has also been made in the development of 100-mm SiC substrates which is key for commercializing the technology and providing low costs. Micropipe densities as low as 2.5 cm -2 have been demonstrated for 100-mm HPSI substrates. With robust reliability for SiC MESFETs now established for several years, the latest results for GaN device reliability benchmarking are also shown.