EPC publishes latest reliability report
Report shows projected GaN device lifetime in real world applications
EPC has published its Phase-15 Reliability Report for eGaN devices, documenting continued work using test-to-fail methodology and adding specific reliability metrics and predictions for real world applications including solar optimisers, lidar sensors, and DC-DC converters.
This report presents the results of testing eGaN devices to the point of failure, which provides the information to identify intrinsic failure mechanisms of the devices.
By identifying these intrinsic failure mechanisms, physics-based models that accurately project the safe operating life of a product over a more general set of operating conditions are developed. This is applied to information from real-world experience to determine mission robustness for specific applications.
This report is divided into nine sections, each dealing with a different failure mechanism or application case including voltage/temperature stress on the gate; voltage/temperature stress on the drain; safe operating area (SOA); short-circuit robustness testing; mechanical force stress testing; thermo-mechanical stress; reliability test results for long-term lidar pulse stress conditions; using test-to-fail methodology to accurately predict how eGaN devices can last more than 25 years in solar applications; and applying the physics-based model to real-world DC-DC converter use cases.