AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistors grown by nitrogen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate state of the art performance of GaN HFETs grown on SiC by rf Nitrogen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at 10 and 20 GHz and good power scalability of these devices at 10 GHz. A single stage power amplifier built by power combining four of our 1 mm devices exhibits continuous wave output power of 22.9 W with associated power added efficiency (PAE) of 37% at 9 GHz. This is to the best of our knowledge the highest CW power and the best combination of power and PAE demonstrated to date for a GaN based microwave integrated circuit at this frequency.