Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Based Power Electronic Devices for Energy Efficiency

Wide-bandgap power semiconductor devices offer enormous improvements in energy efficiency gains for a wide range of applications in an ever increasingly electrified world. Fast switching power semiconductor devices are key to increasing the efficiency and reducing the size of power electronic systems. However, silicon based power semiconductor devices are fast approaching their performance limits. Wide-bandgap semiconductors, such as gallium nitride, with their superior electrical properties are likely candidates to replace silicon in the near future. The ARPA-E SWITCHES program identified the lack of a viable selective area doping processes as a major barrier to fabricating vertical GaN power electronic devices. To address this challenge ARPA-E launched the PNDIODES program to develop transformational advances and mechanistic understanding in the selective area doping process for group III-Nitride wide-bandgap semiconductor material systems. The progress and challenges of selective area doping is reviewed along with the mechanistic understanding being developed under the PNDIODES program.