Intel moves into GaN with high performance integrated 48V driver
Intel has integrated CMOS silicon transistors with gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors for highly integrated 48V devices.
GaN devices with integrated drivers have been developed by Cambridge GaN Devices, EPC and Navitas as well as a major research programme in Europe led by Infineon.
“Intel is the only company focussing on harnessing efficiency of GaN for 48V and below,” said Paul Fisher, Director of Chip Mesoscale Process Development at the Components Research.
“Last year we demonstrated GaN transistors with the industry best figure of merit with 20x gain over silicon such as LDMOS or e-mode GaN HEMT. That was a real breakthrough for us and we are taking that one step further with large scale 3D monolithic process with Gan and CMOS on 300mm silicon,” said Han Wui principal engineer at Intel. The paper is being presented at the IEDM 2023 conference this week in the US.
- Navitas takes integrated GaN into higher power
- Light load boost for integrated GaN chip
- Infineon leads €60m project for European integrated GaN
“More than that we have DR driver GaN for the first integrated CMOS driver with GaN power switches monolithically on the same die,” he said.
Intel introduced the first DR MOS in 2004 and that became the industry standard for delivering power to PCs and data centre servers together. Driver and power integration provides a high density solution with low parasitics using silicon transistors.
“Our work shows it is possible to bring the silicon PMOS transistor with GaN transistors together with the high figure of merit to keep pace with the growth of power density,” said Wui.
“A GaN device is an awesome device for the n-channel but as a complementary technology will have challenges with p-mode in using holes to carry current as these have very low mobility and this is where silicon p-channel comes in,” he said. “Our DR GAN has a Gan N-channel and a silicon p-channel device with high mobility with the gate oxide and contacts.”
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