Millimeter-wave high-power 0.25-μm gate-length AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on SiC substrates

Reports on the CW power performance at 20 and 30 GHz of 0.25 μm × 100 μm AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown by MOCVD on semi-insulating SiC substrates. The devices exhibited current density of 1300 mA/mm, peak dc extrinsic transconductance of 275 mS/mm, unity current gain cutoff (f_T) of 65 GHz, and maximum frequency of oscillation (f_max) of 110 GHz. Saturated output power at 20 GHz was 6.4 W/mm with 16% power added efficiency (PAE), and output power at 1-dB compression at 30 GHz was 4.0 W/mm with 20% PAE. This is the highest power reported for 0.25-μm gate-length devices at 20 GHz, and the 30 GHz results represent the highest frequency power data published to date on GaN-based devices.