Just How Fast is GaN Fast?

Focus:

According to the author, the answer to the title question is “faster than you think”. In this article, he uses various methods to measure the switching speed of a pulse generator based on an eGaN FET from EPC. In other words, he is measuring the fall time of the eGAN FET. After modifying the circuit to accommodate the low impedance of a passive probe, he obtains a 169-ps measurement with that probe. But then he records 139 ps using his proposed, non-contact, air probe to measure the fall time of the eGaN FET via its radiated (E-field) emission. He verifies this measurement with a calibrated E-field probe from Langer EMV Technik. This article demonstrates that passive probes are too slow and have too much capacitance to accurately measure GaN switching waveforms and that new measurement methods like the one described by the author are needed. This article validates the theory presented in the author’s previously published IEEE paper.

What you’ll learn:

• How to measure the switching speed of a GaN FET accurately using an E-field probe

View the Source

Author & Publication:

Steve Sandler, Signal Integrity Journal, Mar 12 2020

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