10,000-V Gallium Oxide Photoconductive Switch Enables Photovoltaic Technology

With the continuous increase in the power level of photovoltaic power plants and the accelerated construction of smart grids, the demand for high-voltage, fast-response, and interference-resistant power semiconductor devices is becoming increasingly urgent. The fourth-generation semiconductor team at the Shenzhen Pinghu Laboratory recently successfully developed a vertically structured gallium oxide photoconductive switch with 10,000-volt withstand capability. It achieves excellent comprehensive performance with a dynamic on-resistance of less than 10 ohms and a voltage conversion efficiency exceeding 80%, and its turn-on response time has entered the sub-nanosecond (<1 ns) range. This marks a key technological breakthrough for China in the field of high-performance optically controlled power semiconductors and is expected to provide a new device solution for the intelligent control of high-voltage direct current transmission in photovoltaic power plants.

This achievement is a collaborative effort with Professor Xiao Longfei's team at Shandong University, making systematic progress in the research direction of "gallium oxide photoconductive switch devices." After repeated testing and optimization, the developed photoconductive switch device exhibits several key performance breakthroughs:

Ultra-high voltage withstand capability – Withstands voltage up to 10,000 volts, adaptable to extreme voltage environments in the power grid.

Extremely low on-resistance – Dynamic on-resistance is below 10 ohms, reducing energy loss during switching.

High-efficiency energy conversion – Voltage conversion efficiency exceeds 80%, improving the overall energy utilization level of the system.

Ultra-fast response – Turn-on response time is less than 1 nanosecond, enabling extremely rapid response to grid control commands. These indicators work synergistically, resulting in excellent overall performance.

Experts point out that photoconductive switches are core components in pulsed power technology and high-speed, high-voltage control, possessing multiple advantages such as opto-isolation, fast response, and resistance to electromagnetic interference. They play an irreplaceable role in advanced energy equipment such as large-scale photovoltaic power plants, grid-connected inverter systems, and energy storage conversion devices, as well as in ultra-high voltage power transmission and distribution. Gallium oxide, a new generation of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor material, has an extremely high theoretical breakdown field strength and excellent photosensitive properties, and is considered an ideal material for realizing next-generation high-voltage, high-efficiency, and fast-response photoconductive switches. The implementation of this research result from the Pinghu Laboratory directly provides a better device choice for the aforementioned scenarios.

The successful development of this 10,000-volt gallium oxide photoconductive switch will strongly support China's significant progress in high-power pulse precision modulation, intelligent and precise control of high-voltage direct current transmission systems, advanced accelerator control, and even high-reliability national defense high-tech equipment. For the photovoltaic industry, it means that the realization of intelligent functions such as flexible grid interconnection, fault isolation protection, and energy routing will likely have a more reliable and efficient "heart"—the power control switching device.

This technological breakthrough highlights China's rapidly improving R&D and industrialization capabilities in the cutting-edge field of fourth-generation semiconductors (represented by gallium oxide), providing a highly promising new path to solve the bottleneck problems of high voltage levels and stringent switching speeds in power control technology faced by photovoltaic and other new energy fields.