Characterization of GaN Switches for Solar Invertors

To improve the coefficient of efficiency of a solar cell application two directions are necessary. The first one is to improve the quality of the solar panels and the second direction is to increase the inverter efficiency.  The second one can be obtained by using high frequency switches with low on and switching losses. GaN has significantly bigger bandgap compared to Si and SiC materials, resulting in higher breaking voltage. Also the channel lengths of GaN MOSFETs are smaller and therefore having smaller gate to source and drain to source capacitance.  In this work, different GaN switches are characterized through their steady state and switching characteristics. Also, using GaN switches in some Solantro Semiconductor Corp. applications and comparing the total power losses of Si and SiC switches are also presented.