Radiation Hardened GaN Monolithic Integrated Circuits for Power Conversion

The desire for smaller and more efficient power and radio frequency (RF) devices has led the electronics community in the direction of wide band gap power devices. Gallium Nitride (GaN) High-Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) devices offer improvements in size, weight, and power (SWaP) over silicon transistors. Enhanced capabilities and SWaP reductions are desirable for DoD and Space system deployments. The Navy SBIR topic N251-067 ìRadiation Hardened Gallium Nitride Electronicsî sets objectives to characterize GaN devices and develop techniques to design radiation hardened (rad-hard) GaN electronics for power and/or RF applications. Additional objectives include the development of radiation hardened discrete GaN HEMT devices and radiation hardened GaN integrated circuits for power conversion and/or RF applications.ÝCommercially available GaN HEMTs have been demonstrated to show sensitivity and permanent damage due to exposure to radiation, specifically heavy-ion radiation while the part is biased. This radiation-induced damage is a significant concern for mission-critical applications. Additionally, many GaN HEMT and integrated circuit (IC) products face supply chain uncertainty through an evolving GaN manufacturing landscape and fabrication facilities that are not domestic to the continental United States (CONUS). It is highly desirable to develop radiation hardened by design (RHBD) GaN HEMT and integrated circuit solutions, to mitigate radiation effects damage and performance degradation, within a fabrication flow with a path to Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) certified trusted status.ÝIn response to the DoD topic N251-067, Alphacore will develop a radiation-hardened, monolithic enhanced-mode (e-mode) GaN HEMT and gate driver/controller, fully GaN-based power management integrated circuit (ìMonolithic eGaN + Driver + Control PMICî for short) fabricated in a foundry domestic to the continental US. Current power management solutions are not radiation-hardened and use multiple integrated circuits (ICs) designed with different processes, typically using silicon (Si) CMOS ICs for logic and GaN discrete field-effect transistors (FETs) for power. This results in bulky solutions, typically not immune to high level radiation. The Alphacore competitive advantage includes radiation-hardness, compactness, high efficiency, high reliability, and US-based manufacturing in a DoD trusted foundry.Ý