Page 31 - PEN eBook May 2023
P. 31
SEMICONDUCTORS
Power GaN Device
Reliability for
Widespread
Power-Conversion
Application Usage
By Sonu Daryanani, contributing writer for Power Electronics News
Silicon power device reliability typically follows experience that silicon devices have. It was noticed
long-established standards, such as AEC-Q100/Q101 and early in GaN power device development that the silicon
JESD47. Parts are typically qualified at 125°C or 150°C, device qualification process did not cover some of
with static bias applied on either the drain or gate for the main failure modes in GaN. As a result, the GaN
1,000 hours, and a failure-in-time (FIT) rate (equal to industry worked together to form the JEDEC committee,
the number of fails in 1 billion device operation hours) JC70, and to develop guidelines to address GaN-
developed based on the number of parts tested and the specific needs. Leading GaN manufacturers like Texas
acceleration profile and activation energy of the stress Instruments (TI) have invested heavily in this effort.
during these tests.
In this article, we will focus on how GaN reliability is
Power gallium nitride HEMT device reliability testing validated and highlight reliability data from TI on its
does not have the benefit of decades of customer GaN products.
MAY 2023 | www.powerelectronicsnews.com 31
