Gallium Nitride Amplifier Adam Woodward

ECE401 Senior Design Fall Semester 2012

Sponsored by Advanced Energy

Team Members

Adam Woodward, CSU EE Senior

Ph.D. Fernando Tomasel, CSU Adjunct Professor

Ph.D. Don Van Zyl, AE Member of Technical Staff

Jose Medina, AE

Goals of this project

Develop a E-Class RF amplifier section with Gallium Nitride devices

Learn how to model high frequency

Investigate combining RF power signals

Develop a power measurement

Compare results to calculated values

What is E-Class Operation

Schematic of E-Class Amplifier

Why E-Class?

The reasons for choosing E-Class Amplifier

Class A (50%), Very linear but high losses

Class B (78.5%), High second harmonic

Class E (85%), High efficiency

Very common for industrial RF amplifiers

GaN Advantages Over Silicon

Benefits of Gallium Nitride over Silicon

Higher Electron Mobility

Lower Gate Charge

Lower inductance packages

Smaller Rds(on)

Significantly smaller size

eGaN Structure

Comparison of Rds on

0.08

1.4

0.13

0.9

0.165 0.128

0.1 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

RES

ISTA

NC

E D

RA

IN T

O S

OU

RC

E

COMMON SEMICONDUCTOR AND eGaN FET

RESISTANCE OF COMMON FET'S

SI4490-DY

FQD4N20TM

FDS2670

2SK2887TL

PSMN165-200K

FDS217ON3

EPC_2012

Comparison of Gate Charge

42

6.5

43

8.5

40

36

1.8 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

GA

TE C

HA

RG

E n

C

COMMON SEMICONDUCTOR AND eGaN FET

FET GATE CHARGE

SI4490-DY

FQD4N20TM

FDS2670

2SK2887TL

PSMN165-200K

FDS217ON3

EPC_2012

Chosen Device EPC2012

EPC 2012 200Vds, 3.0A Ids

Plans for next semester

Completion of RF matching network design

Complete PCB with components installed

Power testing of eGaN FET

Measurement design and feedback loop

Thermal analysis at different power levels

Cost per RF watt analysis for production

Goal is to ignite a plasma in a vacuum chamber!!!

Citations

http://powerelectronics.com/power_semiconductors/power_mos

fets/enhancement-mode-gallium-nitride-032010/index.html

http://epc-

co.com/epc/documents/papers/Gallium%20Nitride%20GaN%2

0Technology%20Overview.pdf

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~culler/AIIT/papers/radio/Sokal%20

AACD5-poweramps.pdf

High Power Solid State Amplifier Design, PhD. Gideon J.J. van Zyl