Design of Overcurrent Protection Circuit for GaN

HEMT
Bo Huang, Yan Li, Trillion Q. Zheng, Yajing Zhang
School of Electrical Engineering
Beijing Jiaotong University
Beijing, China
13121410@bjtu.edu.cn

Abstract—A suitable for high frequency applications with
gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistor overcurrent
protection (OCP) circuit has been put forward. The proposed
circuit depends on the detection of the drain-source voltage of
GaN HEMT to judge the overcurrent fault, then turn off the
GaN HEMT rapidly and send a fault signal to the
microprocessor in the switching period which the overcurrent
fault happened within the frequency of a few hundred
kilohertz to several megahertz. Through analysis and
experiment, it has been shown that the proposed circuit has the
advantages of short-time protection, simple circuit structure
and strong capability of anti-interference as well as a higher
reliability in high frequency and small and medium-sized
power applications.
I. INTRODUCTION
Gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistor
(HEMT) is a relatively new technology compared to silicon
power MOSFETs which is introduced in the middle of
1970’s. Owning the features of higher breakdown voltage,
increased operating temperature, higher switching frequency,
lower on-stage resistance and smaller size, it is expected to
take the place of silicon power MOSFETs in the future [1].
In recent years, because of its superior characteristics and the
development of high-power-density packaging technology,
GaN HEMT has emerged as promising devices for high
switching frequency applications and gone through a rapid
development. In recent years, in order to cater to the
development tendency of high frequency, high power density
and high efficiency in power electronics, as well as the
technology of silicon power MOSFET keeping close to its
bottleneck theory, more and more manufacturers go in to the
research and production of GaN HEMT [2]-[4].
In many key areas such as aviation and electric
automobile which use GaN HEMT to achieve high
performance, in order to avoid the damage of GaN HEMT
and improve the reliability of the converters, protection
circuits are taken into consideration in the design of its drive
circuit. The common protection circuits include driver
protection circuit, overvoltage protection circuit, overcurrent
protection circuit and over-temperature protection circuit.
Because overcurrent fault accounts for most of the faults of
switching devices, it is always been the hotspot of research
in switching device. In large power application in which
IGBTs are widely used, the operating reliability requirements
of IGBT are higher, so studies on its protection circuits,
especially OCP circuit, have a very early start. So far, the
technology of its overcurrent protection is more mature [5]-
[6]. Silicon carbide (SiC) switch as a promising device
which is expected to take the place of IGBT has gradually
been commercialized, and the studies on its OCP circuit are
heating up. Among them, the technology of OCP circuit of
SiC JFET is more mature than the SiC MOSFET’s, and a
good achievement has been made by the University of
Tennessee on the OCP circuit of SiC MOSFET [7]-[9]. With
regard to Si power MOSFET, on account of its widely use in
small power occasions and its low cost, adding an OCP
circuit in its drive circuit is uneconomical. On the contrary,
the research on GaN HEMT is still in the state of beginning
as well as the focus of the research is on the characteristic of
GaN HEMT and the performance of its drive circuit, and
there are no publications found discussing its OCP circuit.
Meanwhile, on the reason that GaN HEMT is easier
interfered on account of its high switching speed and the risk
of overcurrent fault is increasing simultaneously, combined
with its high cost, the research on its OCP circuit is
indispensable.
In this paper, an overcurrent protection circuit is
implemented to protect GaN HEMT under overcurrent fault
condition. The organization of the paper is as follows:
section Ⅱintroduces the structure and the characteristics of
GaN HEMT. Section Ⅲ shows the operating principle and
the circuit design of the proposed overcurrent protection
circuit. The simulation results and the prototype
experimental results are shown in section Ⅳ. Section Ⅴ
provides conclusions for this paper.
II. CHARACTERISTIC OF GAN HEMT
The basic structure of enhancement mode power GaN
HEMT from Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC)
is shown in Fig. 1. GaN transistor is a lateral device and it is
built on a silicon substrate to simplify fabrication and reduce
cost. On the top of the silicon substrate lies an aluminum
nitride (AlN) isolation layer to isolate the GaN from the

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silicon substrate. On the next layer, a thick layer of highly III. OPERATING PRINCIPLE AND CIRCUIT DESIGN
resistive up-doped GaN is grown and used as a base of the The OCP circuits are mainly by detecting the drain
GaN transistor, then a thin layer of highly conductive AlGaN current of GaN HEMT I directly or indirectly to determine
lies on the GaN layer. Due to the AlGaN layer, the surface of whether the overcurrent fault occurs. Commonly there are
GaN layer and AlGaN layer creates a two dimensional two methods to detect the drain current. First, we can
electron gas (2DEG) layer and makes the GaN transistor a cascade a very small resistance R on the GaN HEMT, and
high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). A depletion the voltage of the resistance is VR (VR I · R). By detecting
region which is under the grid electrode is been created by
the voltage of the resistance, it can realize the judgment of
adding a metal layer to realize the same driving mode as
the overcurrent fault. But in this method in order to reduce
enhancement mode silicon power MOSFET.
the loss of the resistance, the value of the resistance R should
match the drain-source on-state resistance of the GaN HEMT
R _ or even smaller, which leads to a very small voltage
signal VR , so it is susceptible to interference. Second, we can
detect the drain-source voltage of GaN HEMT V to realize
the detection of its drain current I . In this method, when the
GaN HEMT is in turn-on state, the drain-source voltage V ,
the drain current I and the drain-source on-state resistance
R _ have the relationship of V I · R _ . So we can
realize the overcurrent fault judgment by detecting the
Fig. 1. Structure of enhancement mode GaN HEMT voltage V . Furthermore, as silicon power MOSFET, GaN
HEMT is also a device of positive temperature characteristic
The parameters of the GaN HEMT EPC2010 are shown that the drain-source on-state resistance R _ will increase
in table Ⅰ. From the table we can know, the gate threshold with the rising of temperature, when the overcurrent fault
voltage of the device is just 1.4V, which is far below the occurs, V change more obvious compared with VR .
silicon power MOSFET’s, which leads to an easier Therefore, the method of judging the overcurrent fault by
conduction false. Its parasitic capacitors, which include input detecting the drain-source voltage V is better.
capacitor (C ) and output capacitor (C ), are also smaller
than the silicon power MOSFET, so as to realize higher In this paper, a OCP circuit for GaN HEMT is proposed,
switching speed and smaller switching loss. For the reason which is mainly by detecting the drain-source voltage of
that the output characteristic curve of EPC2010 from its GaN HEMT to realize the detection of overcurrent Fault.
The schematic diagram of the protection circuit is shown in
datasheet just includes the first quartile workspace, and the
Fig. 3.
device could operate in the third quartile workspace, in this
paper a new output characteristic curve is presented, which
includes the workspaces first quartile and third quartile. The
new output characteristic curve of EPC2010 is shown in Fig. Vo1
Q Vo 2
2.
TABLE Ⅰ. PARAMETER OF EPC2010
Vds 200V Id (continue) 12A Rg Vth Vo 3
Vgs -5V - 6V Id (pulse) 60A
Vgs(th) 1.4V Rds(on) 18mΩ
Ciss 480pF Qg 5nC
Coss 270pF Qgd 1.7nC
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of proposed overcurrent protection
Crss 9.2pF Qgs 1.3nC

As shown in Fig. 3, the proposed overcurrent protection

consists of sampling circuit, judging circuit and processing
circuit. The effect of sampling circuit is the detection of
drain-source voltage of GaN HEMT and the judging circuit
is used to judge the short circuit fault according to the output
of the sampling circuit. After overcurrent fault has been
detected, the processing circuit shuts off the GaN HEMT
rapidly and sends a fault signal to the microprocessor. The
schematic diagram of sampling circuit is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 2. Output characteristics of EPC2010

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 addition, four resistances and an op-amp compose a
D2 differential amplification circuit, which is used to obtain the
VG RF0 difference of VC and VF , and then enlarge the difference N
R1 R3
times (N R F /R ). The relationship between the output of
R0 sampling circuit V and the drain current I can be given as
D1 equation (1), where V can realize the function of enlarging
Q R2 the drain-source voltage V when GaN HEMT is in turn-on
R0 state.
Csp VF1 RF0
V N·R _ ·I  (1)

After sampling circuit has succeeded sampling and

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of sampling circuit
In Fig. 4, Q is the GaN HEMT, D and D are the diodes,
R ~R are the resistances, C is the capacitor, VF is the
voltage of DC source and VG is the output pulse signal
(which has the same logic as the gate drive signal of GaN
HEMT). Then introduction of the detailed operating
principle of the sampling circuit is shown in Fig. 5.
D2
VG
R1 R3
D1
Q R2
Csp
(a) On-state condition
D2
R1 R3
D1
Q R2
Csp
(b) Off-state condition
Fig. 5. Operating principle of the sampling circuit
As shown in Fig. 5(a), when Q is in on-state condition,
the pulse signal VG is of high level, then the diode D turns
on and D turns off, so C is charging through R and R
until its voltage VC reaches V VF ( VF is the forward
voltage of the diode D ). On the contrary, as shown in Fig.
6(b), when Q is in off-state condition the pulse signal VG is
of low level, the diode D turns off and D turns on, so C
is discharging through R and R until its voltage VC down
to VF ( VF is the forward voltage of the diode D ). In
realized to amplify it, the work passes on to judging circuit.
The signal which is the output of the sampling circuit,
compares with the threshold voltage of the judging circuit
. When is higher than , the output of the judging
circuit is of high level. On the contrary, when is
smaller than , is of low level. Because _ doesn’t
change too much with the change of and equation (1), we
can choose a suitable which is corresponding to the
threshold current of the OCP circuit. When the overcurrent
fault occurs, transfer from a low level to a high level,
and trigger the action of the processing circuit. Then GaN
HEMT is shut off by hardware circuit. At the same time the
processing circuit also sends an overcurrent signal to the
microprocessor to inform that there is an overcurrent fault
occurred. We can choose a suitable lockout time by
changing the parameter of processing circuit so that the
microprocessor has enough time to take action about the
overcurrent fault.
The proposed OCP circuit judges the overcurrent fault
by detecting the voltage VC which detects the drain current
I indirectly. Because the voltage of the capacitor changes
by charging and discharging during the switch transition and
some energy is need to participate in both two processes, the
proposed circuit has a strong anti-interference ability. In
addition, for the threshold voltage of the judging circuit V ,
it can be figured out precisely from the threshold current of
the protection circuit I , , R _ of GaN HEMT and the
amplification factor of differential amplification circuit N.
Therefore the proposed overcurrent circuit is more precise
and flexible and it is suitable for all kinds of GaN HEMTs.
IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed OCP
circuit for GaN HEMT, we have done the simulation which
is based on the model of EPC2010 and through the LTspice
simulation software to simulate the severe overcurrent fault
and the protective effect of the protection circuit. In the
simulation, in order to consider time delay of the circuit and
the effects of the parasitic parameters, real device models
were selected in the most of the component in the simulation.
The simulation result of the OCP circuit and the test circuit is
shown in Fig. 6.

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 (a) Simulation waveform
(b) Simulation waveform
Fig. 6. Simulation result
As shown in Fig. 6(a), is the gate-source voltage of the
GaN HEMT, is the output signal of the digital signal
processor (DSP), is the drain current of GaN HEMT and
is the output signal of the processing which low level
stands for pulse lockout and high level stands for pulse
release. When a severe overcurrent fault occurred, the
proposed protection circuit can timely detect the fault and do
the response that shutting off the GaN HEMT in the first and
keeping the lockout condition for the time of . In Fig.
6(b), is the voltage of the capacitor , is the
threshold voltage of the judging circuit and is the drain-
source voltage of GaN HEMT. From the simulation
waveform, the proposed protection circuit can detect the
overcurrent fault under 80 ns and limit the drain current to
25.5A within 180 ns.
In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed circuit
further, we have built an experimental prototype which
included the OCP circuit and overcurrent test circuit. The
device used for experimental test is the 200V/12A/25mΩ
discrete GaN HEMT (EPC2010) from EPC Corporation
which is introduced briefly in section Ⅱ . From the test
circuit we can get a surging current of the GaN HEMT from
0A to 60A in a very short time to simulate a severe
overcurrent fault. The experimental waveform is shown in
Fig. 7.
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(a) Experiment waveform
(b) Experiment waveform
Fig. 7. Experimental result
The experimental waveform , , I and , , I are
respectively shown in Fig. 7(a) and Fig. 7(b). In the
experiment, the proposed OCP circuit can limit the drain
current to about 38A within 203ns. For the reason that the
parasitic parameters of the test circuit and the protection
circuit can’t be taken full consideration, as well as the
difference of the time delay between the practical
components and their simulation models, the preventive
effect of the proposed overcurrent circuit in the experiment is
worse than the one in simulation. The time delay of every
circuit in the experiment is compared in Table Ⅱ.
TABLE Ⅱ. COMPARISON OF TIME DELAY
Sampling Judging Processing Total
delay delay delay delay
120ns 35ns 48ns 203ns
As shown in Table Ⅱ, the time delay of sampling circuit
almost takes up three-fifths the total time delay. Reducing
the capacitance of capacitor C can shorten the sampling
delay which shortening the total time delay of the proposed
overcurrent circuit. But the voltage of C is easier to be
interfered by switching noise or other interference sources
and probably resulting in false trigger of the protection
circuit. So we should take a perfect compromise between
anti-jamming capability and time delay of the proposed
overcurrent circuit when choosing the capacitance of
capacitor C .
 V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, an overcurrent protection circuit for GaN
HEMT which is suitable for high frequency application has
been put forward. The proposed protection circuit depends
on the detection of drain-source voltage of GaN HEMT to
judge the overcurrent fault and can shut off the device timely,
sending an overcurrent fault signal to the microprocessor at
the same time. Simulation and prototype experiment have
been done to verify the feasibility of the proposed circuit. In
the simulation verification, the proposed protection circuit
can limit the drain current of the GaN HEMT to 25.5A
within 180ns. While in the experimental verification it can
limit the drain current to 37.8A within 203ns under severe
overcurrent fault condition. Both the simulation and the
experimental verification show that the proposed overcurrent
protection circuit has the characteristics of short-time
protection, simple circuit structure and strong capability of
anti-interference, as well as a positive meaning in improving
the reliability of high frequency, small and medium-sized
power applications of GaN HEMT.
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