A strategic review on gallium oxide based power electronics: Recent progress and future prospects

Abstract

Silicon based power devices have limited capabilities in terms of voltage handling and switching speeds, leading to rampant research in the field of next generation wide bandgap semiconductors like SiC, GaN, and Ga2O3. Amongst these, gallium oxide with its ultra-wide bandgap of 4.6–4.9 eV and high breakdown field (approx. 8 MV cm−1) turns out to be a potential replacement. Availability of large size, high-quality wafers at moderate costs make it desirable even from industrial viewpoint. Ga2O3 power diodes having breakdown voltages (Vbr) of hundreds of Volts have been reported. However, they suffer from very high on-resistance (Ron) leading to increased switching losses and decreased switching speed. This timely review analyses the recent progress made in Ga2O3 based power devices with detailed discussion on the basic parameters such as Vbr, Ron and leakage current along with the factors critically affecting them. Special focus is laid on the impeccable value-additive extreme environment applications. Open challenges plaguing the field such as trade-off between achieving high Vbr and low Ron simultaneously, shortcomings in the material itself and the need for new physics to explain the high energy carrier transport is also explored along with the future prospects required to achieve true power-saving and commercialization.