INVITED

PAPER

GaN-Based RF Power Devices

and Amplifiers
Gallium nitride power transistors can operate at millimeter wave and beyond
to meet future needs of cell phones, satellites, and TV broadcasting.
By Umesh K. Mishra, Fellow IEEE , Likun Shen, Thomas E. Kazior, and Yi-Feng Wu

ABSTRACT | The rapid development of the RF power band, further to Ka band) and higher power to reduce the
electronics requires the introduction of wide bandgap mate- antenna size of terminal users. The same requirement
rial due to its potential in high output power density, high holds for broadband wireless internet connections as well
operation voltage and high input impedance. GaN-based RF because of the ever increasing speed or data transmission
power devices have made substantial progresses in the last rate. Because of these needs, there has been significant
decade. This paper attempts to review the latest develop- investment in the development of high performance
ments of the GaN HEMT technologies, including material microwave transistors and amplifiers based on Si/SiGe,
growth, processing technologies, device epitaxial structures GaAs, SiC and GaN. Table 1 lists the major parameters of
and MMIC designs, to achieve the state-of-the-art microwave these materials and the Johnson’s figure of merit (JM)
and millimeter-wave performance. The reliability and manu- calculated to compare the power-frequency limits of
facturing challenges are also discussed. different materials [1]. The JM gives the power-frequency
limit based solely on material properties and can be used to
KEYWORDS | Gallium nitride; High Electron Mobility Transistors compare different materials for high frequency and high
(HEMTs); microwave transistors; millimeter wave transistors; power applications.
MMICs; reliability The requirement for high power and high frequency
requires transistors based on semiconductor materials with
both large breakdown voltage and high electron velocity.
I. INTRODUCTION From this point of view, wide bandgap materials, like GaN
With the recent upsurge of the wireless communication and SiC, with higher JM are preferable. The wide bandgap
market, as well as the steady but continuous progress of results in higher breakdown voltages because the ultimate
traditional military applications, microwave transistors are breakdown field is the field required for band-to-band
playing critical roles in many aspects of human activities. impact ionization. Moreover, both have high electron
The requirements for the performance of microwave saturation velocities, which allow high frequency opera-
transistors are becoming more and more demanding. In tion. The ability of GaN to form heterojunctions makes it
the personal mobile communication applications, next superior compared to SiC, in spite of having similar
generation cell phones require wider bandwidth and breakdown fields and saturation electron velocities. GaN
improved efficiency. The development of satellite com- can be used to fabricate high electron mobility transistors
munications and TV broadcasting requires amplifiers (HEMTs) whereas SiC can only be used to fabricate metal
operating at higher frequencies (from C band to Ku semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs). The
advantages of the HEMT include its high carrier concen-
tration and its higher electron mobility due to reduced
Manuscript received February 5, 2007; revised August 22, 2007.
ionized impurity scattering. The combination of high
U. K. Mishra and L. Shen are with the Department of Electrical and Computer carrier concentration and high electron mobility results in
Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA
(e-mail: mishra@ece.ucsb.edu; lkshen@ece.ucsb.edu).
a high current density and a low channel resistance, which
T. E. Kazior is with the Raytheon RF Components, Andover, MA 01810 USA are especially important for high frequency operation and
(e-mail: Thomas_E_Kazior@raytheon.com).
Y.-F. Wu is with the Santa Barbara Technology Center, CREE Inc., Goleta,
power switching applications.
CA 93117 USA (e-mail: yifeng_wu@cree.com). From the amplifier point of view, GaN-based
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2007.911060 HEMTs have many advantages over existing production

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Table 1 Material Properties Related to the Power Performance at High Frequencies for Various Materials

technologies (e.g. GaAs) [2]. The high output power [8]. The column III growth fluxes are provided by
density allows the fabrication of much smaller size devices evaporation of high purity elemental sources. The growth
with the same output power. Higher impedance due to the efforts of both techniques have been focused on developing
smaller size allows for easier and lower loss matching in high power microwave and millimeter-wave AlGaN/GaN
amplifiers. The operation at high voltage due to its high HEMT structures. SiC has been extensively employed as
breakdown electric field not only reduces the need for substrates due to its excellent thermal conductivity [9],
voltage conversion, but also provides the potential to obtain while sapphire and Si are also used because of the low cost
high efficiency, which is a critical parameter for amplifiers. [10], [11]. Device isolation from the SiC and Si substrate is
The wide bandgap also enables it to operate at high provided by a resistive AlN nucleation layer, in which the
temperatures. At the same time, the HEMT offers better growth conditions are adjusted to prevent silicon out
noise performance than that of MESFET’s. diffusion [12].
These attractive features in amplifier applications Excellent material quality has been achieved for GaN
enabled by the superior semiconductor properties make HEMT films. The impurity concentrations in semi-
the GaN-based HEMT a very promising candidate for insulating GaN films are below the detection limit when
microwave power applications. characterized by SIMS. AlGaN/GaN, AlN/GaN [13], GaN/
In this article we discuss the key components of GaN AlN/GaN [14] and AlGaN/AlN/GaN [15] heterostructures
HEMT technology. In Section II we review growth of high with smooth and abrupt interfaces have been demonstrat-
purity device layers by metal organic chemical vapor ed, leading to the formation of 2DEGs with electron
deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). mobilities as high as 2000 cm2 =Vs at room temperature
In Section III we present device engineering and [16]. Non-uniformites of G 2% on 4-inch diameter SiC
processing technologies that are being developed to realize substrates are routinely achieved (for example, see
state-of-the-art GaN HEMT performance. The reliability Fig. 1(a)Va sheet resistivity map of a GaN DHFET
and manufacturing challenges are also discussed. In (Double Heterostructure Field-Effect Transistors) [17].
Section IV, we highlight some of the GaN HEMT hybrid Mercury probe capacitance-voltage (C-V) measure-
amplifiers and monolithic microwave integrated circuit ments of AlGaN/ GaN HEMT structures grown on semi-
(MMIC) that have recently been achieved. insulating SiC substrates reveal high quality material. The
C-V profile exhibits a sharp pinch-off and extremely low,
flat capacitance at high reverse bias (equal to the
II. GaN EPITAXIAL LAYER GROWTH capacitance of the SiC substrate) indicative of negligible
Numerous teams have been developing the MOCVD and GaN buffer and epi/SiC interface charge/doping [as shown
MBE techniques for growth of group-III nitride materials in Fig. 1(b)] [18].
such as GaN, AlN, AlGaN, and InGaN [3]–[8]. In the Both MOCVD and MBE techniques are capable of
MOCVD process, Ga, Al, and In are supplied using growing thin layers. The use of a thin,
10Å, AlN
corresponding metal organic compounds, usually tri- interlayer between the AlGaN barrier and GaN channel
methylgallium, trimethylaluminum and timethylindium. has been demonstrated to reduce sheet resistance by
The metal-organic compounds are then transported by a increasing the mobility and sheet density of the HEMT
carrier gas, most often hydrogen. Thereby the concentra- structure [15]. The increase in mobility is attributed to the
tion of the compound in the carrier gas is determined by its reduction in alloy scattering and the increase in sheet
vapor pressure. The most commonly used nitrogen source charge due to the larger conduction band discontinuity at
is ammonia. In the RF-MBE technique reactive nitrogen the AlGaN/GaN interface. Fig. 2 is an x-ray spectrum of a
atoms and molecules are produced by passing a nitrogen 250 Å Al0:26 Ga0:74 N=10 Å AlN/GaN HEMT grown on a
flow (N2 gas) through a plasma discharge. A variant of this SiC substrate. The presence of the thin, AlN layer
process uses ammonia ðNH3 Þ as the nitrogen source gas enhances the strength of the Pendellosung oscillations.

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Fig. 1. (a) Sheet resistance map and (b) capacitance-voltage plot for GaN HEMT grown on a 4-inch SiC substrate.

(The Pendellosung oscillations are a measure of the as better substrate isolation resulting in higher gain
quality (flatness and abruptness) of the hetero-interface.) devices and improved device efficiency. AlGaN buffer
The AlN interlayer lowered the sheet resistance from 400 layers [19] and InGaN backside barrier layers [20]–[22]
to 285 ohm/sq. and the mobility was increased to greater have been used to create conduction band discontinuities
than 2000 cm2 =Vs. (double quantum wells similar to GaAs pHEMTs and InP
Using the MOCVD and MBE techniques, growers have HEMTs) that inhibit the injection of electrons into the
demonstrated more complex device structures similar to buffer layer. Improved channel confinement/buffer iso-
GaAs pHEMTs, such as quantum well or double hetero- lation and reduced buffer leakage current by Fe, Be, or C
junction (DH) FETs. Some of these devices operate up to doping of the GaN buffer layer (similar to fully depleted
W-band frequencies. The quantum well or DH structures buried p-layers commonly used in GaAs MESFETs and Si
provide improved electron confinement to mitigate short nMOS devices) has also been demonstrated [23]–[26].
channel effects associated with smaller gate lengths as well Finally, highly doped cap layers are being added to the
epi structure to reduce device access (source) resistance,
which results in increased device gain and efficiency
[19], [27].

III . ADVANCED DEVICE DESIGNS AND

PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES
While several electronic devices have been investigated
(for example, HBTs [28], MESFETs [29], MISFETs [30],
HEMTs [31]), most of the research work has been focused
on HEMTs [including MOSHEMT [32] (Metal-oxide-
semiconductor HEMT)], because HEMTs have better
carrier transport properties than MESFETs and the
difficulty of p-doping in GaN impedes the development
of bipolar transistors. A typical AlGaN/GaN HEMT is
shown in Fig. 3.
The polarization doping effect in GaN HEMTs was
predicted by Bykhovski et al. [33]. The first observation of
a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas (2DEG) with a carrier
concentration of the order of 1011 cm2 and a room
Fig. 2. (0002) x-ray spectrum of a AlGaN=10 Å AlN/GaN HEMT temperature mobility of 400–800 cm2 =Vs in an AlGaN/
on a SiC substrate. GaN heterojunction was reported in 1992 [31]. The first

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voltage, it also reduced the dispersion beyond what Six N

passivation offered. Since then, the output power density
has further increased with the help of steadily improved
growth techniques, material qualities, enhanced proces-
sing technologies and more optimum device designs.
The latest record for power density is over 40 W/mm at
4 GHz [43].
The trend of the GaN-based device is towards higher
output power density, higher Power-Added-Efficiency
(PAE), higher operation frequencies and improved reli-
Fig. 3. A schematic of a typical AlGaN/GaN HEMT. ability. In order to achieve these requirements, novel
device designs and processing technologies are being
developed. Recently, much progress has been made and
DC performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMT was shown in 1993 will be discussed below. The first subsections focus on
with the saturation drain current of 40 mA/mm [34]. First improvements to the performance of microwave transis-
RF power data of 1.1 W/mm at 2 GHz for an AlGaN/GaN tors. The last subsection addresses the unique challenges
HEMT was demonstrated in 1996 [35]. In the early stage of of optimizing the device for millimeter wave applications.
the development of the GaN devices, many AlGaN/GaN
HEMTs suffered a discrepancy between the predicted A. Field-Plated GaN HEMTs
output power from static I-V curves and load pull Implementing a field plate on a dielectric layer at the
measurements of output power, referred to as BDC-to-RF drain side of the GaN HEMTs has resulted in some of the
dispersion.[ As seen in Fig. 4, current collapse occurs in most significant and exciting improvements [10], [42],
the pulsed I-V measurement. It is believed to be a trap- [43]. The performance and tradeoffs of the field plate (FP)
related phenomenon where both surface and bulk traps configurations have been investigated in an attempt to
contribute [36], [37]. The existence of the dispersion has extract the best gain and power characteristics.
severely limited the microwave output power of GaN
HEMTs, until two innovations were proposed to overcome Gate Connected FP (GC-FP): Fig. 5(a) shows the cross
this problem. One was the introduction of the Six N section of a gate-connected field-plated GaN HEMT. The
passivation in 2000 [38], [39], which effectively reduced function of a FP is to modify the electric field profile and to
DC-to-RF dispersion caused by surface trap states, thereby decrease its peak value, hence reducing trapping effect and
resulting in a significant increase in output power to 9 and increasing breakdown voltages. Initial FPs were either
11 W/mm [40], [41]. Another was the adoption of the field constructed as part of the gate or tied to the gate
plate in 2003 [10], [42]. In addition to the traditional externally. This has been effective in improving large
function of the field plate to increase the breakdown signal (or power) performance and enabling high voltage
operation as seen in Fig. 6(a) and (b) [44]. Up to a certain
value, the longer the FP, the more output power was
achieved.
However, in this configuration the capacitance be-
tween the FP and drain becomes gate-to-drain capacitance
ðCgd Þ, resulting in negative Miller feedback. This causes
reduction in current-gain and power-gain cutoff frequen-
cies ðft =fmax Þ as seen in Fig. 7.

Source-Connected FP (SC-FP): A close look into the

device operation reveals that, since the voltage swing
across the gate and source is only 4–8 V for a typical GaN
HEMT, much less than the dynamic output swing up to
230 V, terminating the FP to the source [shown in
Fig. 5(b)] also satisfies the electrostatics for it to be
functional. In this configuration, the FP-to-channel
capacitance becomes the drain-source capacitance, which
could be absorbed in the output-tuning network. The
drawback of additional Cgd by the FP is hence is
Fig. 4. DC and pulsed I-V characteristics of an unpassivated AlGaN/GaN eliminated. Depending on the implementation, the
HEMT on SiC substrate. Obvious current collapse (dispersion) could be source-connected field plate can add parasitic capacitance
observed in the pulsed mode. to the device input. However, this can also be absorbed

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Fig. 5. Cross section of a GaN HEMT with (a) gate-connected field plate; (b) source-connected field plate.

into the input tuning circuit, at least for narrow band advantage for SC-FP devices was maintained for biases
applications. from 10 though 60 V as seen in Fig. 8(a). Fig. 8(b) lists
SC-FP, GC-FP and non-FP Devices were fabricated on the change of the capacitance components in GC- and
the same wafer for a direct evaluation. Compared to the SC-FP devices, respectively.
non-FP device, the reveres power transfer ðS12 Þ of the Large-signal performance was characterized by load-
device with GC-FP increased by 71% at 4 GHz, while that pull power measurement at 4 GHz. Both the GC-FP and
of the device with SC-FP actually reduced by 28%. The the SC-PF devices outperformed the non-FP devices in
reduction in S12 for the latter is attributed to the Faraday both output power and PAE at 48 V and above, while
shielding effect by the grounded field plate. As a result, the SC-FP device consistently delivered large-signal gains
at 10 V drain bias and 4 GHz the SC-FP device exhibited 5–7 dB higher than that of the GC-FP device.
a maximum-stable-gain (MSG) 1.3-dB higher than the As successful high-voltage designs, both FP devices
non-FP device and 5.2 dB higher than the GC-FP device. were able to operate at 118 V dc bias as shown in Fig. 9,
As a result, the SC-FP devices shows a significant (9 5 dB where tuning was optimized for the best combination of
at 4 GHz) improvement in maximum stable gain, This gain, power-added-efficiency (PAE) and output power at

Fig. 6. (a) Power density vs. drain voltage for various FP lengths. Device dimension: 0:5  246
m2 . (b) Power performance of a
GaN HEMTs with gate-connected field plates, showing 32.2 W/mm output power at 120 V drain bias.

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strongly process related. Recently, solutions to the

dispersion problem had been addressed at the epitaxial
level [45], [46]. One of these approaches, which has made
substantial progress, is the deep-recessed GaN HEMT
using a thick cap layer to eliminate dispersion [47], as
shown in Fig. 10.
The effect of the surface to the channel is inversely
proportional to the distance between surface and channel.
The thick AlGaN or GaN cap layers in the deep-recessed
HEMTs increase the surface-to-channel distance, the
dispersion caused by surface traps is therefore reduced
or eliminated without surface passivation because now
only a smaller portion of the channel charge is affected
compared to the conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. The
graded AlGaN layer is Si-doped to compensate the negative
Fig. 7. f t =f max as functions of FP length Lf . polarization charge and prevent hole accumulation.
The processing flow was similar to that of the standard
HEMT except for the deep ohmic and gate recess. A
3-dB compression ðP3 dB Þ. While both devices generate fluorine plasma treatment of the recessed surface before
power densities around 20 W/mm, the SC-FP device gate metallization was found to be very effective to reduce
distinguishes itself by 7-dB higher associated gain. With the gate leakage (up to two orders of magnitude) and
the achieved large-signal gain of 21 dB at 4 GHz and the increase breakdown voltage (9 200 V) [48]. A record
estimated voltage swing of 224 V, the voltage-frequency- output power density Pout of more than 17 W/mm with an
gain product (Johnson’s voltage-frequency figure of merit associated power added efficiency (PAE) of 50% was
[1]) for the SC-FP is approaching 10 kV-GHz, the highest measured at VDS ¼ 80 V at 4 GHz (without SiNx
ever shown for any semiconductor device. passivation as shown in Fig. 11). This is believed to be
The above studies were for operation at C-band and the highest power generated from a GaN transistor with-
below. For applications at X-band and above, dimensions out surface passivation to date. At lower bias of 30 V,
for the field plates need to be reduced accordingly to an excellent PAE of 74% with output power density of
manage the parasitic capacitances. 5.5 W/mm was achieved.
In order to control the recess depth accurately and
B. Deep-Recessed GaN HEMTs improve the manufacturability, a selective dry etch tech-
SiNx passivation has been used to reduce the disper- nology of GaN over AlGaN using BCl3 =SF6 has been
sion, but reproducibility of breakdown voltage, gate developed [49]. The presence of fluorine decreases the
leakage, and effectiveness of dispersion elimination is etch rate of AlGaN due to the formation of a non-volatile

Fig. 8. (a) MSG as a function of drain voltage; (b) change of the capacitance components in GC- and SC-FP devices.

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Fig. 9. Power sweeps with a SC-FP device and a GC-FP device at 118 V drain bias and 4 GHz. Device dimension: 0:5  500
m2 .

AlF3 residue on the AlGaN surface. The compatible deep- C. Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor HEMT (MOSHEMT)
recessed structure has a GaN cap (9 200 nm) and an The MOSHEMT design combines the advantages of the
abrupt GaN/AlGaN interface to clearly define the etch- MOS structure, which suppresses the gate-leakage current,
stop position, seen in Fig. 12. Selectivity of around 25 of and an AlGaN/GaN heterointerface that provides high-
GaN over Al0:22 Ga0:78 N was achieved. The selectivity density high-mobility 2DEG channel [50]. The
increased with Al composition in AlGaN, up to about 50– MOSHEMT approach also allows for application of high
100 between GaN and AlN. The devices processed with positive gate voltages to further increase the sheet electron
selective etch technology demonstrated significantly density in the 2-D channel and, therefore, the peak device
reduced processing variations as well as excellent current. The MOSHEMT built-in channel is formed by the
microwave power performance. At 10 GHz, a high PAE high-density 2DEG at the AlGaN/GaN interface as in
of 63% with an output power density of 5 W/mm was regular AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. However, in contrast to a
achieved at VD ¼ 28 V, while 10.5 W/mm with 53% PAE regular HEMT, the gate metal is isolated from the AlGaN
was achieved at VD ¼ 48 V, shown in Fig. 13. The power barrier layer by a thin dielectric film such as SiO2 , AlO,
performance of these devices with gate length of 0.6
m ZrO, NbO, AlN, HfO2 and so on, as seen in Fig. 14. Thus,
is comparable to state-of-the-art conventional SiNx - the MOSHEMT gate behaves more like a MOS gate
passivated AlGaN/GaN HEMTs at 10 GHz. structure rather than a Schottky barrier gate used in
regular HEMTs. Since the properly designed AlGaN
barrier layer is fully depleted by electron transfer to the
adjacent GaN layer, the gate insulator in the MOSHEMT
consists of two sequential layers: the SiO2 film and AlGaN
epilayer. This double layer ensures an extremely low gate-
leakage current and allows for a large negative to positive
gate voltage swing.
The suppression of the gate-leakage current is one of
the most important features of the MOSHEMT. In
Fig. 15, the gate-leakage currents for the 1:5
m 
200
m gate MOSHEMT at different temperatures is
shown. The data shows that the MOSHEMT leakage
current is as low as 1 nA/mm at 20-V gate bias at room
temperature and is approximately six orders of magnitude
Fig. 10. Device structure of a deep-recessed GaN HEMT with AlGaN cap. smaller than for the regular HEMT with similar gate

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Fig. 11. Power performance at 4 GHz without SiNx passivation.

Fig. 13. Power performance at 10 GHz without Six N passivation.

dimensions. Even at 300  C, the gate-leakage current for lower and the maximum output power was 3 dB higher
MOSHFET remains 3–4 orders of magnitude lower than than a HEMT fabricated by the same group. A more
for regular HEMTs. careful scaling of the gate length and gate oxide
The maximum DC saturation drain current at positive thickness, or adoption of high-K dielectrics, could extend
gate voltages is a key parameter controlling maximum the MOSHEMT into the millimeter-wave frequencies.
output RF power. For conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMTs,
gate voltages in excess of 1.2 V result in excessive forward D. Process and Device Technology for GaN HEMTs
current. In a MOSHEMT, the gate voltages as high as 10 V for mm-Wave Applications
could be applied. This results in significant increase in New applications are demanding high output power and
maximum channel current. The gate leakage, however, efficiency at higher frequencies, especially Ka-band (26–
remains well below 1 nA/mm. Fig. 16 shows the transfer 40 GHz) and beyond, with the aim to replace or complement
characteristics for the 1.5
m-gate-length MOSHEMT and traveling wave tube amplifiers. Satellite and broad-band
HEMT measured at the drain voltage sufficient to shift the wireless communications as well as advanced radars are only
operating point into the saturation regime. a few of the many applications that would greatly benefit
With the Six N surface passivation and field plate, the from the increased reliability, reduced size and noise of these
MOSHEMT demonstrated an output power density of solid-state based amplifiers. In order to achieve the goal of
18.6 W/mm with a PAE of 49.5% at drain bias of 55 V at working at mm-Wave frequencies and beyond, new process
2 GHz, seen in Fig. 17. Moreover, there was no degra- technologies and device structures have to be utilized.
dation after the RF-stress at such a high output power The gate-to-source spacing of mm-Wave HEMT must
density for 100 hours [51]. The application of the be minimized, to keep the source access resistance low.
MOSHEMT to higher frequencies (e.g. 26 GHz) has also
been demonstrated [52]. The gate leakage was much

Fig. 12. Device structure of a deep-recessed GaN HEMT with GaN cap,
which is compatible with selective etch technology. Fig. 14. Device structure of an AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMT.

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Fig. 15. Gate-leakage currents for the MOSHEMT 1:5
m  200
m Fig. 17. Power sweep at 2 GHz for a 200-
m-wide device. Device
gate at different temperatures and the baseline HEMT at room
dimensions are Lsd ¼ 6
m, Lg ¼ 1:1
m, LFP ¼ 2:1
m with a 1.1-
m
temperature measured in diode mode (drain disconnected).
overlap with the gate.

However, the conventional alloyed ohmic contacts have The non-alloyed ohmic contacts formed on the implanted
rough morphology and edges, which limits the reduction of region have much smoother surfaces than alloyed contacts,
the gate-to-source spacing. Therefore, a non-alloyed ohmic as shown in Fig. 19. The smooth edges of the ohmic
contact is preferred for the high frequency devices. Ion contacts allow the reduction of the gate-drain spacing, thus
implantation has been used in the GaN device fabrication further lowering the access resistance, which is important
to form non-alloyed ohmic contacts [53], [54]. In the past, to high frequency devices. The same investigators have also
a high temperature ð1200
1500  CÞ annealing process demonstrated a capless implant activation anneal with a
was employed using protective surface layers during the reduced thermal budget and improved the manufactur-
implant activation annealing including SiO2 [55], Si3 N4 ability [57].
[56] and AlN [54], as well as high pressure (
100 bar N2 ). Devices fabricated with the non-alloyed ohmic con-
However, the use of a high temperature, high pressure and tacts exhibit performance comparable to control devices,
capped annealing processes limits the manufacturability of indicating that the implant and capless anneal process
this process for AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Recently investiga- do not degrade the HEMT material characteristics. Re-
tors began applying this technique to selectively Si dope cently, a non-alloyed ohmic contact resistance lower
the source and drain contact region of the GaN HEMT in than 0.3
–mm was achieved with the optimization of
order to reduce the contact resistance and enable the the ion implantation process including reduction of the
creation of non-alloyed ohmic contacts (see Fig. 18) [57]. spacing between the implant and ohmic edge. The HEMT
showed an excellent PAE of 60% with an output power
density of 7.3 W/mm at 10 GHz when VD ¼ 35 V [58].
In the past few years, the power performance at Ka-
band has made steady progress. For instance, an output
power density of 2.8 W/mm was reported at 40 GHz in
2003 [59] and 5.7 W/mm at 30 GHz in 2004 [60].

Fig. 16. Maximum saturation and gate-leakage currents in 1.5-
m gate Fig. 18. Schematic epitaxial structure of the implanted-S/D AlGaN/GaN
MOSHEMT and HEMT devices. HEMT [57].

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Fig. 20. Power sweep of a mm-wave MOCVD AlGaN/GaN HEMT

showing a maximum power of 10.5 W/mm and PAE of 33% at 40 GHz.
The drain voltage was 30 V and the drain bias current was 500 mA/mm.

Al0:04 Ga0:96 N buffer achieved three orders of magnitude

lower sub-threshold drain leakage and demonstrated 30%
improvement in output density and 10% improvement in
PAE [64]. Another InGaN back-barrier design used the
unique strong polarization property of GaN to improve the
channel charge confinement [65]. The sample structure was
shown in Fig. 21. The ultra-thin InGaN layer is 1 nm thick
and has an In composition of 10%. As shown in Fig. 22(b),
Fig. 19. (a) Rough surface morphology of the alloyed ohmic contact the pinch-off characteristics of the sample with an InGaN
of GaN HEMTs (b) smooth surface morphology of the nonalloyed back-barrier are excellent for drain voltages as high as 50 V,
ohmic contact. much better than the control sample without InGaN back-
barrier [Fig. 22(a)]. This led to an improvement of output
Recently, an output power of 10.5 W/mm with a PAE of
34% was demonstrated at 40 GHz at drain bias of 30 V, as
shown in Fig. 20 [61]. The device had a gate length of
160 nm and showed a current gain cut-off frequency ðfT Þ
of 70 GHz and a maximum power gain cut-off frequency
ðfmax Þ of 100 GHz. The very high output power is the
result of the combination of both very high current
densities (
1.4 A/mm at VGS ¼ þ2 V) and breakdown
voltages (9 80 V) with negligible knee walk-out and
current collapse.
Higher fT and fmax are required for operation beyond
Ka-band and are attracting much research efforts [62]. The
traditional methods, for instance, shorter gate length,
multiple fingers to reduce gate resistance and -shaped
gate to decrease gate-to-drain capacitance, are still
effective to further boost the device performance. A fT of
180 GHz has been achieved with 30-nm-gate, thin AlGaN
barrier layer and CAT-CVD-deposited SiN thin layer [63].
In order to improve the confinement of the electrons to
reduce the output conductance and improve fmax , the
concept of the back-barrier has attracted some research Fig. 21. Schematic and band diagram of the InGaN back-barrier
recently. The DHFET utilizing a low Al content sample.

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 Mishra et al.: GaN-Based RF Power Devices and Amplifiers

to the lower band-gap semiconductors, GaN-based HEMTs

have the potential to offer high linearity for the stringent
requirements. The linearity criteria for high power
transmitters are usually expressed in terms of associated
output power and efficiency at a certain distortion level.
Although there exist many modulation schemes, the basic
evaluation of a device technology can always be done with
a 2-tone inter-modulation measurement. Up to now the
best-reported 2-tone linearity-efficiency combination was
achieved with a field plate GaN HEMT [66].
These devices were similar to those with gate-
connected field plates in Section III-A. The gate dimen-
sions were 0:5  246
m2 . The lengths of the FP ðLF Þ,
defined as the extension of the FP over the gate edge on the
drain side, were set at 0 (i.e. non-FP), 0.7 and 1.1
m.
Fig. 22. Change in g m and pinch off with V DS in a standard AlGaN/GaN All devices with and without FP had similar dc
HEMT (a) and a HEMT with InGaN back-barrier (b). characteristics including 9 1 A/mm open-channel current
and a 4 V gate pinch-off voltage. Yet the FP devices
showed higher breakdown voltages of 9 140 V compared
resistance. Standard HEMTs with a gate length of 200 nm to
100 V for the non-FP devices. When cutoff fre-
have an output resistance of 20  5
 mm, while in the quencies were investigated against bias current, all devices
sample with an InGaN back-barrier the output resistance is showed extremely sharp turn-on in power-gain cutoff
35  5
 mm. An average 18% increase in fmax was frequencies ðfmax Þ as the device channel opened up as seen
measured as a result of the improved confinement. A record in Fig. 24. Such gain characteristics are well suited for
fmax of 230 GHz and fT of 150 GHz were achieved from class-B or deep class-AB operation for high efficiency.
unpassivated devices, shown in Fig. 23. More work is needed When biased at 48 V with a small quiescent current
to confirm the benefit of the InGaN back barrier devices of 20 mA/mm and driven by a 2-tone signal with 100 kHz
under large-signal operation. spacing at 4 GHz, a non-FP device generated 3.4 W/mm
with 56% PAE and 15.8 dB gain at IM3 of 30 dBc. The
E. Linearity of GaN HEMTs FP devices exhibited improved linear power due to the
For all high-data-rate communication applications, benefit of field shaping. However, as LF was increased
device linearity is a key performance specification. Due the gain was reduced, which negatively affected PAE. As a
to their large operation space in the I-V plane as compared compromise, LF ¼ 0:7
m was found to be optimum at

Fig. 23. Small signal performance of an AlGaN/GaN HEMT with InGaN back-barrier with bias voltages optimized for maximum f T
and maximum f max .

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Fig. 24. Ft and Fmax vs. current for a GaN HEMT showing extremely
sharp turn-on, very suitable for class B or deep class AB operations.

Fig. 26. A device with LF of 1.1 mm produces 10 W/mm at 30 dBc IM3
this bias voltage, achieving a linear power density of with associated PAE of 41%. Device dimensions: 0:5  246 mm2 .
3.7 W/mm with 57% PAE and 13.7 dB gain at IM3 of V ds ¼ 108 V, deep class-AB bias with IQ ¼ 20 mA=mm. Single-tone
power at 3 dB compression was: P 3 dB ¼ 24 W=mm PAE ¼ 48%.
30 dBc as shown in Fig. 25.
A more significant advantage of the FP devices is their
capability for higher voltage operation. At 78 V, 7 W/mm
linear power was obtained with 50% PAE and 15.2 dB gain viously reported performance, very promising for future
from a device with LF ¼ 0:7
m. As shown in Fig. 26, communication applications.
with further increased bias voltages, a longer LF was As an example of commercial applications, CREE Inc. has
needed. At 108 V, a device with LF ¼ 1:1
m produced started offering GaN HEMT products for stringent WiMax
10 W/mm linear power with 41% PAE and 14.3 dB gain at transmitter amplifiers. Instead of using three amplifiers to
IM3 of 30 dBc. The combination of high linear power manage a bandwidth of 3.3–3.9 GHz in Si technologies, a
density and PAE is a dramatic improvement over pre- single GaN HEMT amplifier not only covers the whole band
but does so with much higher drain efficiencies of 23–28% at
a specified distortion level of 2.5 EVM, as compared to
around 18% for Si devices (see Fig. 27).
Another important advantage is the reduced memory
effect found with the GaN HEMTs, which is beneficial to
the modern digital pre-distortion transmitters [67].
Recently, using all advantageous features of the GaN
HEMTs, a remarkable average wall-plug efficiency of 50%
was achieved in a WCDMA base-station amplifier with an
average output power of 37.2 W and with a normalized
power RMS error of 0.7% and ACLR of 52 dBc at an
offset frequency of 5 MHz [68], which was at least twice
improvement from conventional technologies.

F. Reliability and Manufacturing Challenges

One of the last remaining hurdles to the commercial-
ization of GaN technology has been the demonstration of
reliability consistent with system requirements. To address
reliability, research has focused on reducing or eliminating
device drift and leakage currents under the high field and
high power conditions associated with device operation.
Fig. 25. A device with LF of 0.7 mm achieves 57% PAE at 30 dBc IM3 These include:
with associated output power of 3.7 W/mm. Device dimensions:
0:5  246 mm2 . Vds ¼ 48 V, deep class-AB bias with IQ ¼ 20 mA=mm.
1) improving material quality (reducing defect den-
Single-tone power at 3 dB compression was: P3 dB ¼ 8:8 W=mm sity) of both substrates and epitaxially grown
PAE ¼ 71%. device layers

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 Mishra et al.: GaN-Based RF Power Devices and Amplifiers

Fig. 27. Drain efficiency of a WiMax amplifier using a CGH35015S-DS GaN HEMT by CREE Inc.

2) epi-engineering such as backside barrier layers to hours at standard operating (channel) temperatures for GaN
reduce subthreshold leakage currents [64] HEMTs operating at 28 V (Fig. 28). Similar results have
3) surface stabilization/passivation to eliminate de- been achieved for RF accelerated life testing and three
vice drift due to changes in surface charge and temperature RF Arrhenius accelerated life testing. Recent
gate leakage currents [69], [70] RF operational life testing of X-band GaN MMICs (single
4) device/process engineering, such as gate recess stage MMIC amplifier biased at 28 V and driven 3 dB into
and field plate technology, to reduce peak electric compression) show stable operation (no change in output
fields in the channel; power) in excess of 10 000 hours (Fig. 28). Extrapolation of
5) development of robust ohmic and gate contacts these results predict stable operation in excess of one million
Recent progress in the reliability of wide bandgap hours under realistic operating conditions Similar results
devices have been presented at different workshops and have also been demonstrated for large periphery GaN
conferences. (For example, see the proceeding of the 2005 discrete transistors at S-band (for base stations) [75]. These
and 2006 ROCS [Reliability of Compound Semiconductors] reliability results have been obtained for devices fabricated
Workshops.) Numerous laboratories [70]–[75] have re- on epitaxial material grown by both MOCVD and MBE and
ported reliable device operation under industry standard for SiC and alternate substrates such as silicon, highlighting
reliability testing. Three temperature DC Arrhenius accel- the dramatic improvement in material quality over the past
erated life testing predicts lifetimes in excess of a million few years.

Fig. 28. DC 3 temperature Arrhenius accelerated life test (left) and RF operational life test (right) show that GaN MMIC are stable under
realistic operating conditions.

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For use in MMICs, achievement of transistor reliability thus an infrastructure for the low cost manufacture of wide
is necessary but not sufficient. Passive components must bandgap devices and circuits is emerging.
also be reliable under high voltage and power conditions.
To this end, reliable high voltage, high power on chip MIM
capacitors have also been demonstrated, which have I V. APPLICATIONS
MTTF larger than 108 hours and  of 4.0 MV/cm. As GaN technology is maturing and migrating from
Thus wide bandgap semiconductors have matured to the university and industry research labs into foundries,
point where they can be seriously considered for insertion wide bandgap semiconductors are attracting interest in a
into systems. wide range of applications ranging from cell phone and
Once performance and reliability have been demon- wireless infrastructure (base stations) to high performance
strated, the last hurdle is producing wide bandgap military electronics. The wide bandgap semiconductors are
semiconductors RF devices and circuits in a manufacturing being used as discrete devices in hybrid assemblies and in
environment at a cost that is affordable for the various MMICs. While the majority of the applications are for
system insertion opportunities (i.e., if a technology is power amplification, the wide bandgap semiconductors,
10 times better than the incumbent technology but is particularly GaN, also provide significant advantages for
10 times more expensive, will anyone buy it?). Since robust low noise receivers and switching power supplies.
most of the processing steps for the manufacture of wide For base station applications a number of manufac-
bandgap semiconductors are similar to or compatible with turers have reported reliable, high power large periphery
other compound semiconductors, most development has discrete transistors [75]–[82]. An example (see Fig. 29) is
focused on scaling the technology to take advantage of the Eudyna GaN hybrid power amplifier capable of
existing semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure. The efficiently delivering 9 200 W of power at 2.1 GHz for
most pressing need is for cost effective 100 mm or larger W-CDMA applications [78]. To provide margin for reliable
diameter substrates. This need has driven the scaling of SiC operation, these hybrid amplifiers are designed/optimized
substrates (the most commonly used, although expensive, for relatively lower power densities (3–4 W/mm) (i.e.,
substrate due to its excellent thermal properties) as well as backed off from the peak power densities).
the use of alternate lower cost substrates, such as GaN on CREE Inc. has also demonstrated compact, high-power
Si. Epitaxial growth requires dedicated reactorsVmulti- microwave amplifiers taking advantage of the high-voltage
wafer 100 mm (or larger) GaN reactors, for example, are and high power density of GaN HEMTs [82]. The devices
becoming readily available. With the availability of 100 mm used had 28.8-mm periphery with through via holes
diameter substrates and epitaxial growth, wideband gap employed under the source ohmic contacts for minimum
semiconductors can either be produced in existing grounding inductance and elimination of air bridges. A
compound semiconductor wafer fabs (and thus take peak power of 550 W (57.40 dBm) is achieved at 3.45 GHz
advantage of compound semiconductor wafer loadings to with 66% DE and 12.5 dB associated gain. An outstanding
drive down cost) or on dedicated lines using readily power-efficiency combination of 521 W and 72.4% is
available fabrication equipment. As a result many wide obtained at 3.55 GHz. Such power levels, accompanied
bandgap pilot and production lines exist today (e.g, Cree, by the high efficiencies, are believed to be the highest at
Eudyna, Nitronix, RFMD, Raytheon, TriQuint, NGST) and around 3.5 GHz for a fully-matched, single-package

Fig. 29. Picture and output power of a large periphery 2.1 GHz GaN HEMT hybrid assembly for W-CDMA base station applications (Eudyna).

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 Mishra et al.: GaN-Based RF Power Devices and Amplifiers

Fig. 30. Examples of 2 stage CPW GaN MMIC Pas [83]). Design of the MMIC on the right funded under the DARPA WBGS Phase 2 Program.

solid-state power amplifier, attesting the great potential device and component grounding (as opposed to high
of the GaN HEMT technology. density of air bridge grounding straps used in CPW
Numerous companies are developing GaN MMICs for designs). However, these advantages come at the expense
applications ranging from L- through W-band. The high of reduced thermal spreading in the thinner (50–100
m)
power density of GaN has several advantages in MMIC SiC substrate and added constraints in device thermal
design: 1) The higher power density results in lower management (packaging) to maintain reliable operation.
parasitic capacitance per watt of output power; and 2) the Nevertheless, GaN MMICs with similar levels of perfor-
higher operating voltage results in higher output imped- mance have been achieved with each circuit topology, and
ance. These two factors enable the design of simpler, lower it is up to the MMIC designer to determine which
loss, and wider bandwidth matching networks enabling approach provides the best solution for a given application.
higher power, higher efficiency, and wider bandwidth As discussed earlier, GaN HEMTs have also proven to be
amplifiers than possible with GaAs pHEMTs. very attractive and viable as a power source for millimeter
Two different MMIC topologies are being pursuedV wave applications [84]–[88]. Similar to microwave frequen-
microstrip and co-planar waveguide (CPW). Each approach cies, microstrip and CPW MMICs have been demonstrated.
has its inherent advantages and both are capable of yielding Fig. 31 shows the performance of a microstrip Ka band GaN
high performance MMIC HPAs. CPW based MMICs avoid MMIC power amplifier capable of delivering 11 W of
the additional fabrication steps associated with backside output power [84]. Wu et al. announced an amplifier with
processing (wafer thinning and via hole etching) and take an 1.5-mm-wide device produced 8.05 W output power at
full advantage of thermal spreading in the high thermal 30 GHz with 31% PAE and 4.1 dB associated gain. This is
conductivity SiC substrates to maintain low device channel believed to be the highest power generated from a GaN
temperatures and reliable operation. Examples of CPW GaN transistor at millimeter wave frequencies to date. The
MMIC HPAs are shown in Fig. 30. High power, high output power matches that of a GaAs-based MMIC with a
efficiency, high gain, multistage CPW GaN MMICs have 14.7-mm-wide output device but with a 10 times smaller
been demonstrated from L thru Ka band in a fraction of the size. Recently, GaN MMIC performance has been
footprint of GaAs pHEMT MMICs of comparable output demonstrated at W-band as well (Fig. 32) [88]. The W-
power. CPW devices may also be the preferred approach for band MMIC is based on an MBE grown device structure
the heterogeneous integration of GaN and Silicon transistors and relies on individual source via holes, similar to GaAs
since silicon technology typically relies on topside metalli- pHEMTs, to achieve 2 W/mm at 80 GHz.
zation schemes for interconnects. While there is a long history of microstrip and CPW
With the demonstration of a production worthy SiC GaAs pHEMT, MHEMT and InP HEMT devices and
through wafer via hole technology, microstrip GaN circuits operating at millimeter wave frequencies, these
MMICs are also being designed and fabricated. The GaN devices can not support the power, linearity and efficiency
microstrip MMIC design approach leverages the experi- requirements of next generation systems such as radar,
ence and infrastructure (e.g., design and modeling satellite communications and active self protect systems.
methodologies) of GaAs microstrip MMICs. The via The demonstration of GaN devices and MMICs with high
technology, in general, and individual source finger via power densities and usable gain will enable the proliferation
holes in particular, provides an added degree of freedom in of solid state solutions at millimeter wave frequencies.

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Fig. 31. Picture and performance of a 31–36 GHz balanced GaN MMIC Power Amplifier. 11 W of output power at 34 GHz were achieved [84].

Fig. 32. Picture, and RF performance of a 3 stage W-band GaN MMIC (epi layers grown by MBE). The MMIC exhibited over 2 W/mm of
output power at 80 GHz [88].

V. CONCLUSION substantial progresses in many aspects, from material

The rapid development of the RF power electronics growth, processing technology, device structure, to MMIC
requires the introduction of wide bandgap material (for design in the last decade. Output power density has
instance, GaN and SiC) due to its potential in high output reached 30–40 W/mm, more than one order of magnitude
power density, high operation voltage and high input higher than GaAs. The extremely high power density does
impedance. GaN-based RF power devices have made demand stringent thermal management but could be

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 Mishra et al.: GaN-Based RF Power Devices and Amplifiers

mitigated by achieving a higher efficiency. At the same wave and beyond. With the reliability issues being sorted
time, fT and fmax of about 200 GHz have been achieved, out, GaN-based devices will soon offer new solutions to
extending the application of GaN devices to millimeter future electronic applications. h

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Umesh K. Mishra (Fellow, IEEE) received the Thomas E. Kazior received a BSEE from Tufts
B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology University and the Ph.D. degree from the Depart-
(IIT) Kanpur, India, in 1979, the M.S. degree from ment of Material Science and Engineering at the
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, in 1980, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializ-
the Ph.D. degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, ing in electronic materials. Upon completing his
NY, in 1984, all in electrical engineering. He has studies at MIT, Dr. Kazior joined Raytheon and is
been with various laboratory and academic presently a Principal Engineering Fellow and
institutions, including Hughes Research Labora- Technical Director of Advanced MMIC Technology
tories, Malibu, CA, The University of Michigan at at Raytheon RF Components, Raytheons MMIC
Ann Arbor, and General Electric, Syracuse, NY, foundry. His research focuses on the development
where he has made major contributions to the development of of next generation material, process, device, component and circuit
AlInAsGaInAs HEMTs and HBTs. He is currently a Professor in the technologies for microwave and millimeter wave applications, including
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Associate GaAs based HEMTs, metamorphic device technology, GaN HEMTs,
Dean of the School of Engineering, University of California at Santa and heterogeneous integration of compound semiconductors and
Barbara (UCSB). He has authored or coauthored over 450 papers in silicon. Dr. Kazior has authored or coauthored over 70 papers,
technical journals and conferences. He holds nine patents. His current conference presentations, invited talks, and lectures on process and
research interests are in oxide-based IIIV electronics and IIIV nitride device technology and holds numerous patents on process technology
electronics and opto-electronics. Dr. Mishra was a recipient of the innovations. Dr. Kazior is a 2001 recipient of Raytheons Excellence in
Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Technology Award for his leadership role in the development of
Foundation, the Hyland Patent Award presented by Hughes Aircraft, advanced compound semiconductor device technology as well as a
the Young Scientist Award presented at the International Symposium participant in the National Academy of Engineerings 2002 Frontiers in
on GaAs and Related Compounds and the David Sarnoff Award from Engineering Symposium.
the IEEE.

Yi-Feng Wu obtained his B.E. degree in Engineer-

ing Thermal Physics in 1985 from Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China. He received his M.S.
degree in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D.
degree in Electrical Engineering from University
Likun Shen received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in of California at Santa Barbara in 1995 and 1997,
physics and electrical engineering from Fudan respectively. He joined Witech LLC in 1997, a
University, Shanghai, China, in 1995 and 1998, successful start-ups in Nitride Semiconductors
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical which was merged with CREE Inc. in year 2000.
engineering from the University of California, Dr. Wu has been a forefront researcher in Wide-
Santa Barbara, U.S.A., in 2004. He is currently gap Microwave Electronics since 1996. His achievements include the first
an Assistant Project Scientist in the Department demonstration of microwave power capability from an AlGaN/GaN
of Electrical Engineering in the University of transistor and maintaining the records of the highest power densities
California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A. for solid-state FETs. His recent work has been focused on improving
His research interests focus on design, fabri- device reliability as well as applying the GaN devices to the millimeter-
cation, characterization, and development of compound semiconductor wave regime.
devices, especially GaN-based high frequency high power electronic For the last 11 years, Dr. Wu has continuous presentations in either
devices and optical devices. He is also interested in semiconductor device IEEE DRC (Device Research Conference) or IEDM (International Electron
physics, modeling and simulation. Dr. Shens contributions to the Device Meeting). He has authored many high-impact papers resulting in
development of GaN HEMTs included the novel passivation method, greater than 1000 citations. He served in the technical committee of
novel epitaxial structure and processing technologies. Dr. Shen has the IEEE DRC from 2004 to 2006. He is a technical committee member
authored and coauthored more than 40 papers in technical journals and of ICNS-7 (International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors, 2007).
international conferences as well as several patents in pending. Dr. Wu holds 6 U.S. patents in GaN related devices.

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