Investigation of p-GaN tri-Gate normally-Off GaN Power MOSHEMTs

In this work, we present the investigation of the combination of p-GaN gate and tri-gate structures to achieve normally-off operation on GaN-on-Si MOSFETs. We have developed and optimized a selective and low-damage p-GaN etching recipe to stop at the AlGaN barrier and minimize the degradation in on-resistance (R
ON
). The p-GaN length and tri-gate filling factor (FF) were optimized to achieve a good trade-off between high threshold voltage (V
TH
) and low R
ON
. The excellent channel control capability offered by tri-gate structure led to a reduced OFF-state leakage current (I
OFF
), higher ON/OFF ratio, smaller sub-threshold slope (SS) compared to similar planar p-GaN devices. These results unveil the excellent prospects of p-GaN tri-gate technology for future power electronics applications.