R&D into GaN power devices is surging as industry positions the emerging technology as the next generation of power semiconductors. Companies already active in GaN power device R&D include Fujitsu Laboratories, Ltd., a group centered on Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., International Rectifier Corp. and Sanken Electric Co., Ltd., and now they have been joined by a group including NEC Corp. and NEC Electronics Corp., and by Panasonic Corp. The latter two groups presented GaN power device R&D results at the 2009 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2009), the international conference on semiconductor manufacturing technology held in December 2009.
R&D into GaN power devices is heating up because they promise significantly better efficiency and smaller size than the silicon (Si) power devices currently used in inverters, converters and similar power conversion applications.
One of the hottest R&D topics in the field right now is determining the best substrate. GaN wafers make it easier to improve the electrical characteristics of GaN power devices, but they are also costly. In an effort to reduce cost, more and more manufacturers are using substrates of a different material, such as Si or SiC. Both the NEC group and Panasonic use Si substrate. They expect to go commercial in about 2011, at roughly the same time as other firms working on Si-wafer designs.
One characteristic of the Si substrate announced by Panasonic is that it integrates six devices in a single chip, making it possible to fabricate smaller inverters, with lower parasitic inductance, than inverters made with individual devices.
The Panasonic chip measures 2.7mm x 2.5mm in area, and is an inverter IC integrating six GaN FETs. The IC was used to drive a motor, exhibiting a power loss of about 42% less (at 20W output) that an inverter using Si IGBT. A number of firms have made inverters using multiple GaN FETs for motor drive applications, but this is said to be the first implementation in an IC.
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