Integrated Over-Temperature Protection Circuit for GaN Smart Power ICs

摘要

As a thermal sensing and protection module on a GaN smart power IC platform, the first GaN over-temperature protection (OTP) circuit is demonstrated to deliver a desirable triggering signal at the critical temperature. The integrated OTP circuit is realized based on monolithic integration of enhancement-/depletion-mode high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) and HEMT-compatible lateral field effect rectifiers on a baseline AlGaN/GaN-on-Si wafer. The circuit effectively indicates the over-temperature up to 250 ℃, and has a power supply rejection radio well above 35 dB. This sensing/protection circuit is expected to provide enhanced reliability to the high-voltage GaN power devices.