Shu YANG

For the past 12 years, Shu Yang has focused on the advanced fabrication, characterization, and reliability study of wide-bandgap GaN power devices.

In order to achieve GaN power devices with high efficiency, high frequency, and high reliability, she has contributed numerous innovative works, including the lowest forward voltage drop (or conduction loss) at the kilo-volt level for vertical GaN power diodes, breaking the tradeoff between forward conduction and reverse blocking performance. She developed vertical GaN PiN diode with the simultaneous realization of conductivity modulation at on-state and zero reverse recovery (or switching loss) during on-to-off switching for the first time, breaking the tradeoff between conduction capability and switching performance in conventional bipolar power devices due to minority carrier injection. She proposed a new multi-frequency/temperature capacitance characterization method well suited for GaN heterojunction devices and successfully mapped out the interface trap distribution with time constants spanning up to 10 orders of magnitude. She developed the world’s first current-collapse-free vertical GaN device, overcoming the grand challenge of dynamic performance degradation in GaN in the past 3 decades.

The advanced power device technology she developed has played important roles in key fields such as communications, aerospace, and electric vehicles.