Medium- and High-Voltage Gallium Nitride Power Devices
Organizers
Yuhao Zhang, Assistant Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dong Dong, Assistant Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Abstract
After two decades of relentless development, GaN power high-electron-mobility transists (HEMTs) have been commercialized in voltage classes up to 650 V. In the last few years, strong momentum has emerged in industry and academia to extend the application space of GaN devices into the medium-voltage applications. Several industrial companies are developing 650-1200 V lateral GaN HEMTs, either discrete devices or modules. For example, VisIC is developing 800-1200 V GaN HEMT modules for EV applications. Meanwhile, 600-1200 V GaN transistors based on the vertical architecture are being manufactured on 100-mm GaN-on-GaN platform by several companies in the U. S. and Japan. For example, NexGen Power Systems has demonstrated the production of 650-1200 V vertical GaN JFETs with avalanche capabilities; Toyoda Gosei has demonstrated 1200 V vertical GaN MOSFETs with over 100 A current. In academia, high-voltage GaN devices have been demonstrated up to 10 kV recently. All these progresses suggest that the industrial medium-voltage GaN devices will be available to power electronics engineers very soon. This special session provides a timely overview of the state-of-the-art medium- and high-voltage GaN devices and an industry-centric discussion on the benefits and applications spaces of these coming devices.
Short Bio of Organizers
Dr. Yuhao Zhang is an assistant professor at the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), Virginia Tech. Before joining Virginia Tech, he worked as a postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Techno logy (MIT) from 2017 to 2018. He received his Ph. D. and S. M., both in electrical engineering from MIT in 2017 and 2013, respectively. Prior to joining MIT, he received his B. S. in physics from Peking University in 2011 with the highest honor. His research interest is at the intersection of power electronics, micro/nano-electronic devices, and advanced semiconductor materials. He has published 70+ papers and holds 4 granted US patents. He is the receipient of 2021 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2019 IEEE George E. Smith Award, and 2017 MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories Doctoral Dissertation Seminar Award. His research work has been covered by the media globally over 60 times.
Dr. Dong Dong received the B.S. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2007, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, in 2009 and 2012, both in electrical engineering. From 2012 to 2018, he was with GE Global Resea rch Center (GRC), Niskayuna, NY, USA, as an Electrical Engineer. Since 2018, he has been an assistant professor with the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech. He has published over 25 referred journal publications and more than 80 IEEE conference publications. He currently holds 28 granted US patents. He received two Prize Paper Awards from the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS and IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS. While at GE GRC, he received GE technology transition awards for solar inverter technology commercialization, gold-medallion patent innovation award, and multiple Above & Beyond Awards. The developed modular hybrid energy storage module (HESM) and modular stacked dc system technologies (MSDC) were reported by Naval Science and Technology “Future Force” and Journal of Petroleum Technology.
Speakers and Presentations
1. Dr. Dinesh Ramanathan, Founder and Co-CEO, NexGen Power Systems
Unlocking the Full Potential of GaN in Power Systems
2. Dr. Tohru Oka, Project General Manager & Senior Principal Engineer, Toyoda Gosei
Development status of vertical GaN SBDs and MOSFETs
3. Dr. Robert Kaplar, Manager of the Semiconductor Material and Device Sciences Department, Sandia National Laboratories.
Vertical Gallium Nitride Devices for Medium-Voltage Power Electronics
4. Dr. Tamara Baksht, CEO, VisIC Technologies
650V Lateral GaN Devices and Modules for 400V and 800V EV Applications
5. Dr. Juan Sabate, Senior Principal Engineer, GE Global Research Center
Healthcare Applications of GaN Power Devices