What is especial with gallium-nitride ICs

[engr_joni_ee]

Hi, I just came across the ICs with gallium-nitride. I am wondering what is especial with these ICs ? Do they work better in radiation environment ?

GaN: Pushing the limits of power density & efficiency | TI.com

Design faster, cooler systems with less energy and a smaller footprint

www.ti.com

 

[mahdh]

GaN ICs sound interesting. I read the article you linked, and it seems like it will be more reliable. But just because its structural and material properties are more resilient than normal silicon ICs, I don't think this would mean they would work better in radiation environment.
When we create ICs for radiaition environments, we instead use redundancy techniques and use larger ICs.

 

[FvM]

You can generally expect better radiation tolerance of wide bandgap semiconductors. GaN is specifically described to have it.

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

(Ultra)Wide-bandgap Semiconductors for Extreme Environment Electronics - AIP Publishing LLC

publishing.aip.org

Known to support much higher frequencies from lower dielectric constant and junction capacitance are also more expensive and use extremely lethal hot gases to produce.