Vertical GaN diode shows resistance to proton irradiation

GaN power devices can bring many advantages to aerospace applications owing to the high switching frequency and low power losses. However, GaN power devices are still subject to degradation in reverse blocking and/or forward conduction performance when exposed to fluxes of high-energy protons from solar flares or Van Allen radiation belts.

Now researchers from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) have demonstrated a vertical GaN PiN diode with a reverse blocking voltage (BV) higher than 1.7 kV after high-energy proton irradiation, which the team believes is the best among state-of-the-art quasi- and fully-vertical GaN power diodes.