Effect of Field Plate on the RF Performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMT Devices

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of the field plate structure on the RF performance of AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) devices. While the field plate structure helps to increase the breakdown voltage of the device through modulating the electric field locally, it induces additional feedback capacitance from drain to gate. Such feedback capacitors may impact the overall RF performance of the device especially at high frequencies. Systematic investigations on the small signal as well as power performance as functions of the drain biases are presented. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Garry Lee