Development of an optically-gated GaN power device

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K04281
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 21060:Electron device and electronic equipment-related
• Research Institution: Oita University (2019-2020); Nagoya University (2018)
• Principal Investigator: Omori Masato 大分大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (70454444)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: パワーデバイス / 窒化ガリウム / 光ゲート / フォトトランジスタ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a next-generation power semiconductor material that is expected to save a great deal of energy in power conversion devices. In this study, we fabricated GaN-npn transistors grown on GaN freestanding substrates and evaluated the characteristics of power phototransistors with gate operation by light irradiation. As a result, we confirmed the photo-induced ON/OFF of the current between emitter and collector by UV light irradiation to the surface aperture, and the ON/OFF ratio was large enough to be more than six orders of magnitude. The on-resistance of the device designed with a breakdown voltage of 1 kV was about 22 mΩcm2.

Free Research Field

半導体デバイス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

脱炭素社会の実現のためには電力利用の高効率化が必要不可欠である。本研究では電力消費の１割を節約できると期待される窒化ガリウムを用いたパワーデバイスの実現を目指す研究を行った。本研究の成果はこのような省エネ用パワーデバイスの発展と普及を加速させることができ，社会的な意義は大きい。また，従来の構造とは異なる全く新しいパワーデバイスを提案し動作実証と特性解明を行った成果は学術的に大きな意義を持つ。