Proposed here is the development of high temperature and high power vertical switching transistors for inductive load switching and pulse width or frequency modulation power converter applications. The single most important factor limiting high temperature wide bandgap power electronics is the availability of inexpensive large diameter substrates. The fast, high voltage power transistors will be fabricated from conducting GaN substrates. The program will target development of high temperature GaN vertical power transistors capable of >425§C operation with performance exceeding that of other semiconductor technologies. Effort will concentrate on designing a family of scalable devices which are capable of 10-100 Amperes absolute current, 2000-5000 V breakdown, <50 ns transient switch delay and >10MNz switching. Significant costs savings for power converter and management systems can be achieved by reduced thermal management hardware requirements and increased frequency of operation
