Methodology for Small-Signal Model Extraction of AlGaN HEMTs

Both large- and small-periphery AlGaN high- electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) will find applications in microwave systems from 2 to 40 GHz because of their superior power handling capability. A self-consistent approach is presented for the linear model´s parameter extraction from measured S-parameters. The model for parasitics is selected to reflect loading from both the probe pads and the interconnect regions, including the air bridges. The objective is to accurately extract intrinsic model parameters as the device periphery is increased from 50 mum to 1 mm and to isolate the effects of device layouts, including air bridging the source regions. To accurately extract the shunt and series parasitics, the device must be represented in its ON- and OFF-states determined by the gate and drain bias. The intrinsic device capacitances are not negligible in the forward and beyond-pinchoff reverse bias states at zero drain bias and must be accounted for. With these corrections to the measured S-parameters, consistent results for the intrinsic device parameters are obtained with both small- and large-periphery AlGaN HEMTs.