High-power recessed-gate AlGaN-GaN HFET with a field-modulating plate

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices 2004-12, Vol.51 (12), p.2217-2222
• Main Authors: Okamoto, Y., Ando, Y., Nakayama, T., Hataya, K., Miyamoto, H., Inoue, T., Senda, M., Hirata, K., Kosaki, M., Shibata, N., Kuzuhara, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum materials/devices; Applied sciences; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Equivalent circuits; Exact sciences and technology; FETs; Field-effect transistors (FET); field-modulating plate (FP); Gallium materials/devices; GaN; recess; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Theoretical study. Circuits analysis and design; Transistors
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2004.838453

Recessed-gate AlGaN-GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors (FETs) with a field-modulating plate (FP) have been successfully fabricated for high-voltage and high-power microwave applications. The developed recessed-gate FP-FET with a gate length of 1 /spl mu/m exhibited an increased transconductance of 200 mS/mm. A series of current collapse measurements revealed that the recessed-gate FP-FET is highly desirable for collapse-free high-voltage power operation. Equivalent circuit analysis demonstrated that the gain loss due to the additional gate feedback capacitance associated with the FP electrode is considerably compensated by increasing the drain bias voltage to more than 30 V. A 48-mm-wide recessed-gate FP-FET biased at a drain voltage of 48 V exhibited a record saturated output power of 197 W with a linear gain of 10.1 dB and a power-added efficiency of 67% at 2 GHz.