Gallium Oxide
Ga2O3 is the new kid on the block for power and RF electronics. With its bandgap of 4.9 eV, as an emerging electronic material with high critical electric field strength and large-area substrates, Ga2O3 offers significant cost and performance advantages over existing wide bandgap semiconductor GaN and SiC materials for power switch and RF applications. Its Baliga’s figure of merit (BFOM), a benchmark for its performance in power electronics, will outperform GaN devices by more than a factor of 3. Its Johnson’s figure of merit (JFOM), a benchmark for RF performance, shows it is able to maintain comparable RF performance, and cost analysis predicts manufacturing costs will be only a third of current comparable technology manufacturing costs.
Figure 1. Higashiwaki et al SST 2016
We recently demonstrated world-record RF power added efficiency of 12%, drain efficiency of 22.4%, output power density of 0.13 W/mm, and maximum gain up to 4.8 dB at 1 GHz for a 2 μm gate length device. The evaluated device showed minimal dispersion during gate and drain lag measurements, which are encouraging results, given this is relatively new technology. These values can be further improved by scaling of the devices and improved heat management concepts.
Figure 2. Device schematic