Infineon launches rad-hard GaN HEMTs
Infineon has announced the first of a new family of radiation hardened GaN HEMTs, fabricated at Infineon’s own foundry, based on its CoolGan technology.
Designed to operate in harsh space environments, the company’s new product is said to be the first in-house manufactured GaN transistor to earn the highest quality certification of reliability assigned by the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to the Joint Army Navy Space (JANS) Specification MIL-PRF-19500/794.
The new HEMTs devices are engineered for mission-critical applications required in on-orbit space vehicles, manned space exploration, and deep space probes.
“The Infineon team continues to push the limits of power design with our new GaN transistor line,” said Chris Opoczynski, SVP and general manager HiRel, at Infineon. “This milestone brings the next-generation of high reliability power solutions for mission-critical defence and space applications that utilise the superior material properties of wide bandgap semiconductors to customers serving the growing aerospace market.”
The first three product variations in the new radiation hardened GaN transistor line are 100 V, 52 A devices featuring an industry leading (R DS(on) (drain source on resistance) of 4 mΩ (typical) and total gate charge (Qg) of 8.8 nC (typical).
Encased in a hermetically sealed ceramic surface mount packages, the transistors are Single Event Effect (SEE) hardened up to LET (GaN) = 70 MeV.cm2/mg (Au ion). Two devices, which are not JANS certified, are screened to a Total Ionizing Dose (TID) of 100 krad and 500 krad. The third device, screened to 500 krad TID, is qualified to the JANS Specification MIL-PRF-19500/794.
Engineering samples and evaluation boards are available immediately with the final JANS device being released in the summer of 2025. Additional JANS parts are launching soon, expanding available voltages and currents.
