First RF Power Operation of AlN/GaN/AlN HEMTs with >3 A/mm and 3 W/mm at 10 GHz

Austin Hickman, Reet Chaudhuri, Lei Li, Kazuki Nomoto, Samuel James Bader, James C. M. Hwang, Huili Grace Xing, Debdeep Jena
2020 IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society  
The AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructure is attractive for microwave and millimeter-wave power devices due to its thin top barrier, tight carrier confinement, and improved breakdown voltage. This work explores the large-signal RF performance of high-electron-mobility transistors on this heterostructure. Results are highlighted by record high on-current of 3.6 A/mm, and record maximum oscillation frequency (f max ) of 233 GHz. The load-pull power sweep at 10 GHz demonstrate a peak power added efficiency
more » ... PAE) of 22.7% with an associated gain (G T ) of 8.7 dB and output power (P out ) of 3 W/mm. When optimized for power, the peak P out of 3.3 W/mm has an associated PAE of 14.7% and G T of 3.2 dB. This first demonstration is encouraging for the mm-wave power potential of the AlN/GaN/AlN HEMT. INDEX TERMS GaN, AlN, output power, mm-wave, load-pull.
doi:10.1109/jeds.2020.3042050 fatcat:o5xzvj7x2zf65jcct3p7d37rzq