Highly Robust p-GaN Gate HEMT With Surge-Energy Ruggedness Under Unclamped Inductive Switching and UV Pulse Laser Irradiation

The robustness of non-avalanche p-GaN gate HEMTs against dynamic overvoltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {over.}}\text {)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and transient surge-energy (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}_{\text {sur.}}\text {)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> shocks is critical for device applications, especially for high-power switching applications. In this work, by carefully constructing an energy dissipating passage from the drain to the source, the proposed device successfully possesses the ability to withstand dynamic overvoltage and safely dissipate surge energy, achieving a maximum <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {over.}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 1.85 kV and an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}_{\text {sur.}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 11.7 J/cm2, setting a performance record for GaN-based devices. Furthermore, the device sustains over 1-million times repeated UIS energy shocks, revealing strong robustness. In particular, under extreme conditions of UV pulse laser irradiation and inductive transient, the device still exhibits notable survivability. These results reveal the great potential of non-avalanche p-GaN HEMTs with surge energy dissipating and overvoltage sustaining capabilities for high-power switching applications.