The Commercialization of GaN Power Devices: Value Proposition, Manufacturing, and Reliability

Compact devices with unique switching performance, this has been the promise of GaN power devices since several years. After a development journey of more than one decade, the commercialization of GaN based normally-off power devices is gaining strong momentum. This is enabled by a mature enhancement mode device concept based on a robust pGaN gate module with outstanding figure-of-merits, leading to compelling value propositions in a variety of power electronic applications. Unrivaled values for efficiency and power density have been demonstrated in high-performance switch mode power supplies. Another key enabler is a cost efficient and stable manufacturing for both the GaN base epitaxy as well as the complex and new GaN power device processes. Development and production of GaN technology in a high-volume large wafer-diameter silicon fab on equipment shared with silicon technologies allow for economy of scale already in the early phases of the technology life-cycle. Finally, market success strongly depends on device reliability. Breakthroughs in solving the dynamic RDSon issue by improved epitaxy stacks and smart device concepts as well as the reduction of process defect densities now facilitate broad market entry in many industrial and consumer applications.