Laser Driver Switching 20 A with 2 ns Pulse Width Using GaN

Published in:
IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., Anaheim, CA, May 25-27, pp. 1110-1113 (2010).
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Abstract:
A GaN-HEMT-based circuit is presented capable of switching 20 A of current with less than about 0.5 ns rise and fall time. This demonstrates the potential of GaN transistors for highcurrent switching applications, even if breakdown voltage requirements are low. The current driver is used to realize an optical pulse picker generating 10 ps optical pulses of more than 30 W with a variable repetition rate between 1 kHz and 100 MHz.

Keywords:
GaN-HEMT, laser driver, high-current switching, optical pulse generation, pulse picker.

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