GaN Power Integration Technology and Its Future Prospects

The planar nature of the GaN heterojunction devices provides extended dimensions for implementing monolithic power integrated circuits. This article presents a comprehensive review of the advancements in GaN power integration. Basic building blocks in a power integration platform based on p-GaN gate HEMT technology are discussed, including high- and low-voltage transistors, lateral field-effect rectifiers, resistors, and capacitors. Exemplary designs of monolithic gate driving circuit and detection/protection circuits based on this platform are demonstrated. Technologies to address other challenges, including the lack of mature complementary logic (CL) and the substrate-induced crosstalk effect, are also demonstrated. More forward-looking development of power integration based on wide bandgap semiconductors is also presented in a hybrid GaN/SiC field-effect transistor that is expected to harness the complementary merits of GaN and SiC, and ON-chip GaN-based nonvolatile memory device that could provide versatile intelligence.