Implementation of High-Power-Density -Band AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors in a Millimeter-Wave Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Process

A GaN high electron mobility transistor monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) designer typically has to choose a device design either for high-gain millimeter-wave operation with a short gate length, or for high-power-density X-band operation with a much larger gate/field-plate structure. We provide the designer the option of incorporating two different devices by implementing a 0.14-μm gate length GaN MMIC process capable of high-efficiency Ka-band operation while simultaneously achieving high power density in the same process flow. The key process enabler simply uses the capacitor top plate in the MMIC process as a field plate on the passivation layer. On two separate devices on the same chip using the same MMIC process flow, we demonstrate 7.7 W/mm at 35 GHz and V_DS = 30 V on a standard 4 × 65-μm T-gated FET and then 12.5 W/mm at 10 GHz and V_DS = 60 V on a 4 × 75-μm T-gated FET by adding a field plate. These are the highest reported power densities achieved simultaneously at X-band and Ka-band in a single wideband GaN MMIC process.