High Voltage GaN Power HEMTs Reliability

Taking advantages of the wide-band-gap properties and the manufacturability of Si wafers, GaN-on-Si power transistors have been a focus in power electronics because of the high conversion efficiency. After the initial production of GaN devices and related application adoptions in the commercial market, the efforts are extended to higher working voltages and higher quality levels. Here we report the latest progress of GaN power HEMTs at Transphorm Inc. For higher power applications, the first 900V GaN product has been developed and successfully passed JEDEC qualification with 720V HTRB. Meanwhile, 650V product has passed automotive AEC-Q101 qualification as the first in the industry. In the failure rate analysis, both voltage acceleration and temperature acceleration have been employed for characterization. The study of the early lifetime failure showed a PPM about 10 (an annual failure rate of 0.001%) at typical working condition of 480V and 100C. This quality level meets automotive application requirements.