Panasonic, which recently launched mass production of its X-GaN process of lateral GaN HeMT, presented a 1.7kV GaN device during IEDM conference. GaN devices available today are limited to 650V for enhancement mode devices, and 1200V for depletion-mode normally-on devices. Panasonic’s device demonstrated during IEDM is a GaN/GaN Vertical device having a Ron of 1mΩcm².
The device is based on a V-shaped structure, and a secondly grown GaN/AlGaN interface separated from the first one, which improves electron mobility by a factor of 5. Panasonic’s team also used a carbon doped GaN layer to avoid punch-through phenomenon.