Gallium Nitride Electrical Characteristics Extraction and Uniformity Sorting

• Main Authors: Shyr-Long Jeng, Chih-Chiang Wu, Wei-Hua Chieng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2015-01-01
• Series: Journal of Nanomaterials
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/478375

This study examined the output electrical characteristics—current-voltage (I-V) output, threshold voltage, and parasitic capacitance—of novel gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors. Experimental measurements revealed that both enhanced- and depletion-mode GaN field-effect transistors (FETs) containing different components of identical specifications yielded varied turn-off impedance; hence, the FET quality was inconsistent. Establishing standardized electrical measurements can provide necessary information for designers, and measuring transistor electrical characteristics establishes its equivalent-circuit model for circuit simulations. Moreover, high power output requires multiple parallel power transistors, and sorting the difference between similar electrical characteristics is critical in a power system. An isolated gate driver detection method is proposed for sorting the uniformity from the option of the turn-off characteristic. In addition, an equivalent-circuit model for GaN FETs is established on the basis of the measured electrical characteristics and verified experimentally.