On-Chip Concurrent Device Aging Prognosis and Dielectric Failure Detection for GaN Power Devices

Despite promising figure of merits, as emerging wide bandgap devices, gallium nitride (GaN) power devices face significant reliability challenges. This article presents an on-chip condition monitoring (CM) approach addressing these challenges by seamlessly integrating device aging prognosis and dielectric failure detection into a unified circuit platform. Specifically, leveraging the device turn
-on
transient time (
t
_on
) as a reliable aging precursor, we propose a closed-loop
t
_on
sensing scheme with self-regulated sampling to enhance precursor readout accuracy while mitigating sensing delays. Furthermore, we improve CM accuracy through junction temperature (
T_J
) calibration, effectively eliminating temperature-induced effects on precursor measurements. Concurrently, we develop a gate leakage current (
I
_GSS
) based sensing scheme for dielectric failure detection, sharing the same circuitry of
T_J
calibration. Leveraging a proposed reconfigurable tri-mode gate driver, this CM approach minimizes impact on normal system operation. A power IC prototype was implemented on a 180-nm BCD process. Demonstrated on a GaN half-bridge power converter, the proposed CM exhibits the precise detection of both device aging and dielectric failure.