Comparison of Static Characteristics in GaN HEMTs Across 50K to 400K Considering Diverse Techniques and Statistical Variation

GaN HEMTs are prominent candidates for space applications, such as lunar missions, which require reliable operation over a wide temperature range from 50K to 400K. Previous studies have examined the performance of GaN HEMTs at cryogenic temperatures (typically down to 77K), but they often focus on a limited selection of models and sample sizes. To address this gap, a comprehensive analysis of diverse GaN HEMTs is necessary, considering their performance across a broad temperature range and statistical variations due to manufacturing inconsistencies. This paper provides a comparison of GaN HEMTs based on different voltage ratings, technologies and packaging approaches. A key observation is that the on-state resistance of the studied Gate Injection Transistor (GIT) device exhibits a parabolic variation with temperature, with resistance at 50K being 1.25 times higher than at room temperature. Additionally, the statistical variation in the static parameters of a cascode GaN device across six samples reveals that the variation increases as the temperature decreases, indicating that the statistical variation over a wide temperature range cannot be overlooked.