Failure analysis of normally-off GaN HEMTs under avalanche conditions

Gallium nitride (GaN) high electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are promising devices in the power electronics field owing to their wide bandgap (WBG). However, all the potential advantages provided by their WBG require reliability improvement. In industrial applications, robustness is one of the main factors considered by circuit designers. This study focuses on the observation of the degradation behavior of the main waveforms of unclamped inductive-switching (UIS) test circuits of two different commercial GaN HEMT structures. The relevance of this study lies in the potential applications of these devices to high-voltage applications and automotive systems where they are subjected to many…