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All commercial GaN power transistors are lateral current flow devices, including those already made by Power Integrations – technical limitations make vertical GaN devices very hard to make on a commercial scale.
In a lateral device, source and drain contacts are on top of the semiconductor die, while vertical flow devices have source and drain on opposite faces of a die.
Although a lateral flow structure has some advantages, vertical flow structures are preferred in most applications – almost all silicon power mosfets are vertical current flow devices, for example.
“Lateral GaN is constrained by current-carrying capacity, and the die get very large when Rds(on) is low. At some point, this may limit GaN’s ability to challenge silicon carbide, especially at higher voltages,” Power Integrations v-p of marketing Doug Bailey told Electronics Weekly. “By contrast, vertical GaN has the potential to completely eclipse SiC in both cost and performance, and companies including Power Integrations are investigating ways of manufacturing vertical GaN repeatably and at scale.”
Odyssey, and other start-ups, have made steps towards vertical flow GaN power transistors without achieving production-ready devices.
In this case the intellectual property is around GaN-on-GaN raw material.
“Vertical-conduction GaN devices grown on GaN substrates have ~1000-10,000 fewer defects per unit area allowing for reliable operation at voltages up to 10,000V, and beyond,” according to Odyssey.
“With this acquisition, we are sure that the combination the process and technology experts at Odyssey and Power Integrations will be able to solve any challenges that still exist,” said Bailey. “This will result in a new category of high-current, SiC-killer, vertical GaN devices.”
All commercial GaN power transistors have lateral flow
Aside from the intellectual property, what does Power Integrations want from Odyssey?
“The staff, their expertise and their know-how are very important,” said Bailey. “The buildings and equipment are helpful, but not critical.”
The transaction is expected to close in July 2024, after which all key Odyssey employees are expected to join Power Integrations.
“The Odyssey team and I are excited to join Power Integrations in accelerating their GaN technology roadmap,” said Odyssey co-founder and CEO Richard Brown.
