Comparative Performance Evaluation for Bidirectional 1.2–10 kV Conventional and Superjunction GaN Current Aperture Vertical Electron Transistors

Bidirectional (BD) GaN current aperture vertical electron transistors (CAVETs) featuring conventional, doped superjunction (DSJ) or polarized superjunction (PSJ) drift regions are compared at 1.2–10 kV breakdown voltages (BV). BD DSJ/PSJ devices are formed by tying two unidirectional DSJ/PSJ CAVETs in common‐source (CS) or common‐drain (CD) configuration, while the monolithic BD conventional CAVET shares a single drift region. Simulations performed using Sentaurus capture static ( R ON,sp ) and dynamic ( Q T,sp ) performance, where Q T,sp is the sum of the gate ( Q G,sp ) and drain ( Q D,sp ) charges. The figure‐of‐merit (FoM, defined as R ON,sp ⋅ Q T,sp ) quantifies each device's performance. Resistive turn‐on switching and inductive turn‐off switching are considered separately in evaluating the dynamic performance. CS and CD versions of superjunction CAVETs exhibit similar R ON,sp at all BV ratings. BD DSJ devices reduce R ON,sp by 20–97% relative to conventional BD; BD PSJ achieves a reduction of 20–99%. PSJ further decreases Q D,L,sp by 21–96% compared to DSJ by eliminating depletion effects. Overall, BD DSJ CAVETs improve FoM L by 55–75% over conventional BD; BD PSJ CAVETs add another 55–98% improvement. Under resistive turn‐on switching, CD DSJ CAVETs show a 60–98% improvement in FoM R compared to CD conventional CAVETs, with CD PSJ CAVETs yielding an additional 47–77% improvement.