Fabrication and investigation of 1200V-class high voltage GaN HEMTs with different design strategies and inter-metal dielectric layers

Abstract Gallium Nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) have demonstrated significant potential in the field of power electronics. However, in the 1200 V-class high voltage and high current scenarios, the utilization of GaN HEMT devices is considerably less prevalent compared to that of silicon carbide (SiC) devices. In this work, 1200 V-class high-voltage and high-current GaN HEMT devices were developed. The effects of various layout structures and parameters on the performance of GaN HEMT power devices were also analyzed and compared. The source/drain centered cell layouts, the positions of the bonding pads, variations in gate-to-drain distance ( L GD ) and different inter-metal dielectric layer configurations are all considered in this study. Through experimental analysis, we compare key electrical performance metrics such as breakdown voltage (BV), threshold voltage ( V th ), on-state resistance ( R DS,on ) and gate/drain leakage current. The results indicate that the BVs of all the fabricated GaN HEMTs are higher than 1400 V, and the BV of our proposed GaN HEMT with floating field plate-HEMT are more than 2000 V. The R DS,on of the device is 156.2 mΩ with a specific on-resistance of 10 mΩ cm 2 , which has great application prospects in high-voltage and high-current power electronic systems.