Effective Suppression of IV Knee Walk-Out in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for Pulsed-IV Pulsed-RF With a Large Signal Network Analyzer

Abstract

IV knee walk-out in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on a Sapphire substrate is analyzed using dynamic radio frequency (RF) load-lines acquired with a large signal network analyzer (LSNA) for both continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed-IV/RF excitations. When thermal effects and traps are bypassed using pulsed-IV biasing and pulsed-RF excitations, the IV knee walk-out observed in CW load-lines is found to be effectively suppressed and the device delivers the maximum output power expected for class A operation. It is also demonstrated using pulsed-IV/RF measurements at various substrate temperatures that the IV knee walk-out primarily arises from thermal effects at high bias rather than trapping in the on-wafer devices characterized