Monolithically integrated power circuits in high-voltage GaN-on-Si heterojunction technology

This study presents monolithically integrated power circuits, fabricated in a high-voltage GaN-on-Si heterojunction technology. Different advanced concepts are presented and compared with solutions found in the literature. High switching transition slew rates are demonstrated by means of a monolithic power circuit with integrated gate driver. A highly linear temperature sensor is integrated in a GaN-high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) power device for the 600 V class and on state resistance of 53 mO. An area-efficient HEMT structure with integrated free wheeling diodes is presented. This structure is applied in a monolithic multilevel converter chip, as well as in a 600 V class half-bridge chip. The multilevel chip is integrated by an advanced printed circuit board embedding technology and tested in inverter operation with a mains voltage output of 120VRMS. The performance of the half-bridge is demonstrated in a synchronous buck converter operation from 400 to 200 V and with a switching frequency of 3 MHz.