by Steve Sandler, Signal Integrity Journal, Mar 12 2020
Focus:
According to the author, the answer to the title question is “faster than you think”. In this
article, he uses various methods to measure the switching speed of a pulse generator based on
an eGaN FET from EPC. In other words, he is measuring the fall time of the eGAN FET. After
modifying the circuit to accommodate the low impedance of a passive probe, he obtains a 169-ps
measurement with that probe. But then he records 139 ps using his proposed, non-contact, air
probe to measure the fall time of the eGaN FET via its radiated (E-field) emission. He verifies
this measurement with a calibrated E-field probe from Langer EMV Technik. This article
demonstrates that passive probes are too slow and have too much capacitance to accurately
measure GaN switching waveforms and that new measurement methods like the one described by the
author are needed. This article validates the theory presented in the author’s previously
published IEEE paper.
What you’ll learn:
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