A 200V High-Speed Level Shifter for Monolithic GaN IC with Enhanced \mathrmV\mathrm/\text Noise Immunity and Negative V\mathrm Tolerance

• Published in: 2024 36th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD) pp. 466 - 469
• Main Authors: Zheng, Yifei, Li, Boyu, Dong, Qianheng, Yuan, Weimin, Yang, Songtao, Zhu, Jing, Sun, Weifeng, Zhang, Long, Ma, Jie, Yu, SiYuan, Wang, Denggui, Zhou, Jianjun
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 02.06.2024
• Subjects: Electric potential; Filters; Gallium nitride; Gallium nitride (GaN); Level shifters; Monolithic GaN power ICs; Noise; Noise immunity; Power semiconductor devices; Reliability; Semiconductor device measurement
• ISSN: 1946-0201
• DOI: 10.1109/ISPSD59661.2024.10579555

The monolithic GaN half-bridge power IC minimizes parasitics and fully unleashes the high-speed capabilities of GaN devices. However, due to the unique characteristics of GaN devices and processes, reliability issues faced by level shifters in GaN half-bridge ICs are more severe. This study presents a GaN-based 200V high-speed level shifter with enhanced \mathrm{d}V\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{d}t noise immunity and negative V_\mathrm{S} tolerance. The new structure, composed of common-gate differential pairs, achieves a better trade-off between \mathrm{d}V\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{d}t noise immunity capability and propagation delay. Additionally, the negative V_{\mathrm{S}} tolerance of the level shifter has been strengthened by a concise circuit to accommodate the high reverse conduction voltage drop of GaN devices. Measured results verify the characteristics of the proposed circuit, which was fabricated using a 1μm GaN-on-Silicon process.