Measured microwave power performance of AlGaN/GaN MODFET

Author

Wu, Y.-F. ; Keller, B.P. ; Keller, S. ; Kapolnek, D. ; DenBaars, S.P. ; Mishra, U.K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

17

Issue

9

fYear

1996

Firstpage

455

Lastpage

457

Abstract

We report the first microwave power measurement on GaN FET´s. At 2 GHz, a class A output power density of 1.1 W/mm with a power added efficiency of 18.6% was obtained on a 1 μm gate-length AlGaN/GaN MODFET. Mathematical simulation estimated that the transistor was operating at a channel temperature of 360/spl deg/C as a result of the poor thermal conductivity of the sapphire substrate. Despite this serious heating problem, the power output density still rivals GaAs MESFET´s.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium compounds; high electron mobility transistors; microwave field effect transistors; microwave measurement; microwave power transistors; power field effect transistors; power measurement; 1 micron; 18.6 percent; 2 GHz; 360 degC; AlGaN-GaN; III-V semiconductors; MODFET; channel temperature; class A output power density; heating problem; microwave power performance; power added efficiency; power measurement; power output density; sapphire substrate; thermal conductivity; Aluminum gallium nitride; Electromagnetic heating; FETs; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; MODFETs; Microwave measurements; Power generation; Power measurement; Thermal conductivity;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.536291

Filename

536291