SiC and GaN devices – wide bandgap is not all the same

Nando Kaminski; Oliver Hilt

SiC and GaN devices – wide bandgap is not all the same

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Author(s): Nando Kaminski ¹ and Oliver Hilt ²
- Affiliations: 1: IALB, Institute for Electrical Drives, Power Electronics, and Devices, University of Bremen, Otto-Hahn-Allee NW1, 28359 Bremen, Germany;
  2: GaN-Electronics, Department of Power Electronics, Ferdinand Braun Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Straße 4, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Source: Volume 8, Issue 3, May 2014, p. 227 – 236
DOI: 10.1049/iet-cds.2013.0223 , Print ISSN 1751-858X, Online ISSN 1751-8598

Received 14/06/2013, Accepted 08/01/2014, Revised 21/12/2013, Published 06/05/2014

Silicon carbide (SiC)-diodes have been commercially available since 2001 and various SiC-switches have been launched recently. Parallelly, gallium nitride (GaN) is moving into power electronics and the first low-voltage devices are already on the market. Currently, it seems that GaN-transistors are ideal for high frequency ICs up to 1kV (maybe 2kV) and maximum a few 10A. SiC transistors are better suited for discrete devices or modules blocking 1kV and above and virtually no limit in the current but in that range they will face strong competition from the silicon insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). SiC and GaN Schottky-diodes would offer a similar performance, hence here it becomes apparent that material cost and quality will finally decide the commercial success of wide bandgap devices. Bulk GaN is still prohibitively expensive, whereas GaN on silicon would offer an unrivalled cost advantage. Devices made from the latter could be even cheaper than silicon devices. However, packaging is already a limiting factor for silicon devices even more so in exploiting the advantage of wide bandgap materials with respect to switching speed and high temperature operation. After all, reliability is a must for any device no matter which material it is made of.

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SiC and GaN devices – wide bandgap is not all the same

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