AlGaN/GaN-on-Si monolithic power-switching device with integrated gate current booster

This study investigates the effects of a monolithic gate current booster integrated with an AlGaN/GaN-on-Si power-switching device. The integrated gate current booster was implemented by a single-stage inverter topology consisting of a recessed normally-off AlGaN/GaN MOS-HFET and a mesa resistor. The monolithically integrated gate current booster in a switching FET eliminated the parasitic elements caused by external interconnection and enabled fast switching operation. The gate charging and discharging currents were boosted by the integrated inverter, which significantly reduced both rise and fall times: the rise time was reduced from 626 to 41.26 ns, while the fall time was reduced from 554 to 42.19 ns by the single-stage inverter. When the packaged monolithic power chip was tested under 1 MHz hard-switching operation with VDD = 200 V, the switching loss was found to have been drastically reduced, from 5.27 to 0.55 W.