Gate resistance thermometry: An electrical thermal characterization technique

Gate resistance thermometry (GRT) is a potential reliable technique to determine the average temperature of the gate metal in gallium nitride (GaN) transistors. In contrast to other electrical techniques that average the temperature across different areas of the active channel, GRT can capture the temperature near the hotspot formation that is located near the gate. This chapter reviews the different approaches and configurations possible to implement GRT under varying biasing conditions. The versatility of being able to use GRT under DC and pulsed biasing enables the accurate thermal characterization of devices under both steady state and transient conditions. Particular focus is given on verifying the technique’s accuracy technique via other experimental methods and numerical simulations. The importance of extracting accurate transient thermal parameters is also highlighted in this chapter using transient GRT in both the time and frequency domain.