Trouble with EPC GaN FET's

Question

Hi All,

I'm not exactly sure where the best place to put this would be, so I figured here would be as good as any.

I recently created a development/test board for EPC's GaN FET's which includes TI's LM5113 GaN driver. The strange issue that I've been having is that the presence of the GaN FET's on the board results in a short from drain to source. Ive checked and rechecked the board connections and compared my design with other development boards and my board checks out. The driver also seems to be working as expected, so I can only expect to blame the transistors. Is it possible that ESD could have destroyed the transistors and caused such a short? I'm completely baffled as to why they are both "ON" even though an input voltage is below threshold.

Thanks for any thoughts!

- Zach

Former Member · Accepted Answer

For anyone who might be interested in using the EPC GaN FET's, I was told by someone with the company that it is extremely likely that ESD damaged the FET's. One should follow their assembly application completely when soldering the devices to prevent such an occurrence