Experimental Evaluation and Analysis of Switching Transient's Effect on Dynamic on-Resistance in GaN HEMTs

The dynamic <sc>on</sc>-resistance in gallium nitride (GaN) devices is problematic as it can impair the converter's efficiency due to the increased conduction loss. In this paper, the hard-switching transient's effect on the dynamic <sc>on</sc>-resistance is, for the first time, evaluated experimentally on a commercial high-voltage GaN high electron mobility transistor. A new <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R_{{\rm{dyn}} - {\rm{ds}},{\rm{on}}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> measurement circuit with fast sensing speed is designed, and an accurate measurement of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R_{{\rm{dyn}} - {\rm{ds}},{\rm{on}}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> can be realized experimentally within 49.6 ns after the device's current reaches to the load current. A double-pulse-test setup is designed to comprehensively evaluate the switching transient's effect on <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R_{{\rm{dyn}} - {\rm{ds}},{\rm{on}}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> under different operating conditions. From the experimental results, it is found that the turn-<sc>on</sc> and turn-<sc>off</sc> gate resistance have a significant impact on the dynamic <sc>on</sc>-resistance whereas the cross-talk effect on <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R_{{\rm{dyn}} - {\rm{ds}},{\rm{on}}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> is negligible. Specifically, at 400 V/25 A, more than 27% (28.2%) increase in <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R_{{\rm{dyn}} - {\rm{ds}},{\rm{on}}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> is observed when the external turn<sc>-on</sc> (turn-<sc>off</sc>) gate resistance increases from 0 to 20 Ω. Detailed discussion and quantitative analysis are provided to explain the experimental results. In terms of the turn<sc>-on</sc> process, it is concluded that the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R_{{\rm{dyn}} - {\rm{ds}},{\rm{on}}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> variation is mainly caused by the different numbers of generated hot electrons. For the turn<sc>-off</sc> transient, it is confirmed the variation of drain current at different <italic>dv/dt</italic> slew rate leads to the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R_{{\rm{dyn}} - {\rm{ds}},{\rm{on}}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> difference.

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