Prospects for the application of GaN power devices in hybrid electric vehicle drive systems

GaN, a wide bandgap semiconductor successfully implemented in optical and high-speed electronic devices, has gained momentum in recent years for power electronics applications. Along with rapid progress in material and device processing technologies, high-voltage transistors over 600 V have been rep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSemiconductor science and technology Vol. 28; no. 7; pp. 74012 - 74020
Main Authors Su, Ming, Chen, Chingchi, Rajan, Siddharth
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published IOP Publishing 01.07.2013
Subjects
gallium nitride
high voltage
normally off
power devices
short circuit
traction inverter
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Summary:GaN, a wide bandgap semiconductor successfully implemented in optical and high-speed electronic devices, has gained momentum in recent years for power electronics applications. Along with rapid progress in material and device processing technologies, high-voltage transistors over 600 V have been reported by a number of teams worldwide. These advances make GaN highly attractive for the growing market of electrified vehicles, which currently employ bipolar silicon devices in the 600-1200 V class for the traction inverter. However, to capture this billion-dollar power market, GaN has to compete with existing IGBT products and deliver higher performance at comparable or lower cost. This paper reviews key achievements made by the GaN semiconductor industry, requirements of the automotive electric drive system and remaining challenges for GaN power devices to fit in the inverter application of hybrid vehicles.
ISSN:0268-1242
1361-6641
DOI:10.1088/0268-1242/28/7/074012