Cascode GaN HEMT Gate Driving Analysis

The aim of this paper is to analyze the conventional cascode gate driving to understand the switching transition and to provide a design guide for the GaN HEMT and its associated packaging. A double-pulse tester has been designed and fabricated with minimum parasitic inductance to avoid unnecessary parasitic ringing. The switching behaviors in both turn-on and -off are analyzed through topological study and explained through SPICE simulation. Two different cascode devices were tested to show the impact of threshold voltage and low-voltage Si MOSFET selection.