Panasonic Develops A Gallium Nitride (Gan) Inverter Ic For Motor Drive With High Efficiency
Source/Type: Reported News

Author: CompoundSemi News Staff

January 18, 2010... Panasonic of Osaka, Japan has reportedly developed a gallium nitride (GaN)-based monolithic inverter integrated circuit (IC) on a single chip for motor drive. The integrated six GaN-based transistors can be independently driven in a single chip to convert direct current to alternating current. Panasonic says that the device enables successful motor drive with high efficiency. The new GaN inverter IC, which was made on a large diameter silicon substrate, is reportedly applicable to motor drive in a variety of consumer electronics.

Panasonic's proprietary Gate Injection Transistors (GITs) are integrated into a single chip taking advantages of its lateral device configuration. The company claims that it is the first ever GaN-based monolithic integrated inverter IC on a single chip. According to the company, the GIT serves normally-off operation with low on-state resistance and high breakdown voltage. Planar isolation using iron (Fe) ion implantation can allow independent operation of each GIT and can keeping high breakdown voltage around 900V between each transistor. This gives it stability even after high temperature fabrication process over 800ºC. The epitaxial structure is reportedly grown using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with novel buffer structures which fully relax the strain in the film caused by the lattice and thermal mismatches between GaN and Si. Successful motor drive is confirmed using the new GaN-based monolithic inverter IC. The device's conversion loss is effectively reduced by 42% compared to conventional Si-based IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) at the output power of 20W. Panasonic News Release

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