GaN HFET digital circuit technology
Tahir Hussain, Miroslav Micovic, Tom Tsen, Michael Delaney, David Chow, Adel Schmitz, Paul Hashimoto, Danny Wong, J.S. Moon, Ming Hu, Janna Duvall, Doug McLaughlin
HRL
Laboriatories, LLC,
Email: thussain@hrl.com
Keywords: GaN HFET, Harsh Environments, Control Electronics
Abstract:
We report on a demonstration of GaN digital circuits implemented in a first generation GaN digital technology, which has yielded circuits of considerable complexity. We have implemented simple logic blocks, comparators, ring-oscillators and frequency dividers. We have yielded a 31-stage ring-oscillator using 217 transistors [1]. As a result of unique material characteristics of GaN digital control circuits have the potential to operate in high radiation environments, at elevated temperature, and directly from high voltage rails. While we have successfully operated 31-stage GaN ring-oscillators at 265C, we believe that these circuits can operate at significantly higher temperatures and will be tolerant of total dose radiation exposure.