Comparison of high voltage, vertical geometry Ga₂O₃ rectifiers with GaN and SiC

Ga₂O₃ is a candidate for power electronics due to its large bandgap, controllable doping and availability of large diameter, inexpensive substrates. These include power conditioning systems, pulsed power for avionics and electric ships, solid-state drivers for heavy electric motors and advanced power management and control electronics. There are cases where the performance exceeds the theoretical values for SiC. Existing Si, SiC (vertical devices), and heteroepitaxial GaN (lateral devices) enjoy advantages in terms of process maturity, especially for Si, where devices such as superjunctions which surpass the unipolar "limit". Continued development of low defect substrates, optimized epi growth and device design and processing methods for Ga₂O₃ are required to push the experimental results closer to their theoretical values. The actual experimental value of Vb is well below the theoretical predictions. Thermal management is a key issue in Ga₂O₃ devices and initial studies have appeared on both the experimental and theoretical fronts.