Event
MSE Seminar Series: Charles R. Eddy, Jr.
Friday, October 25, 2013
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.
Room 2108, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Bldg
JoAnne Kagle
301-405-5240
jkagle@umd.edu
GaN Power Transistors with Integrated Thermal Management and a Look Forward to GaN Vertical Power Devices
C.R. Eddy, Jr.
Materials Engineer and Head
Power Electronic Materials Section
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
GaN power transistors offer great promise for applications in compact, high efficiency power systems simply based upon the properties of III-N materials. These properties result in a power figure-of-merit that is almost 700X greater than silicon and 160X that of 4H silicon carbide. Despite this promise there remain several challenges to reliable GaN power switches including reducing the thermal limit to ultimate performance, reducing gate and forward blocking leakage and reducing the on-resistance of the device. This seminar will highlight recent materials development efforts to address GaN power switch limitations through the realization of an enhancement-mode (e-mode) lateral HEMT with integrated nanocrystalline diamond coatings for thermal management. In addition, an initial look at some key materials challenges to the next generation of GaN power devices involving vertical blocking architectures is offered.
