Publications Details

On-Wafer Investigation of Avalanche Robustness in 1.3 kV GaN-on-GaN P-N Diode under Unclamped Inductive Switching Stress

Shankar, Bhawani; Zeng, Ke; Gunning, Brendan P.; Lee, Kwang J.; Martinez, Rafael P.; Meng, Chuanzhe; Zhou, Xin Y.; Flicker, Jack D.; Binder, Andrew B.; Dickerson, Jeramy R.; Kaplar, Robert K.; Chowdhury, Srabanti

This work reports an on-wafer study of avalanche behavior and failure analysis of in-house fabricated 1.3 kV GaN-on-GaN P-N diodes. DC breakdown is measured at different temperatures to confirm avalanche behavior. Diode's avalanche ruggedness is measured directly on-wafer using a modified unclamped inductive switching (UIS) test set-up with an integrated thermal chuck and high-speed CCD for real-time imaging during the test. The avalanche ruggedness of the GaN P-N diode is evaluated and compared with a commercial SiC Schottky diode of similar voltage and current rating. Failure analysis is done using SEM and optical microscopy to gain insight into the diode's failure mechanism during avalanche operation.