Comparative Analysis and Demonstration of Monolithic Integration in High-voltage Gallium Nitride Processes

Gallium Nitride (GaN) power e-HEMT, a popular alternative to Si in high temperature and high voltage power applications, can be monolithically integrated with low-voltage HEMTs, passive components and diodes. Through comparative analysis between the experimental performance of LV circuits, fabricated using ON Semiconductor’s 650-V GaN-on-Si and imec’s 200-V GaN-on-SOI process, and simulated results from their BCD-counterparts, this thesis identifies the types of circuits that are suitable for monolithic GaN integration based on the processed-power and operating frequency of an application. Using the GaN-on-SOI technology, a binary-weighted segmented gate-driver is fabricated with a power-HEMT, controlling the HEMT’s voltage slew-rate and overshoot. The power-HEMT has embedded current and temperature sensing structures. A monolithic high-voltage floating level-shifter and a programmable deadtime generation circuit, as building blocks to a GaN half-bridge IC controlled using a single low-side gating signal, are built and tested.M.A.S