440 IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 28, NO.

5, MAY 2018

A 750-W AlGaN/GaN HEMT Operating

at 80 V for L-Band Applications
Li-Jiang Zhang, Jiang-Hui Mo, Yu-Xing Cui, Xing-Chang Fu, Guang Qian , Xian-Jie Li, and Tong Zhang

Abstract— High operating voltage and high power are
important developing goals of GaN-based high-electron mobility
transistor (HEMT) at present. In this letter, we demonstrated
a GaN-based HEMT exhibiting a breakdown voltage of greater
than 300 V, an operating voltage of up to 80 V, an output power
of up to 750 W, a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 80% and
an associated power gain of 16.8 dB at 1.3 GHz. The device
simultaneously realizes high voltage, high power, and high PAE,
and is suitable for L-band high-power applications.
Index Terms— AlGaN/GaN, high-electron mobility transis-
tor (HEMT), L-band.
I. I NTRODUCTION
G aN has been regarded as one of the most promising
materials for electronic devices due to the wide band gap
of 3.4 eV. The HEMT based on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure
has various advantages of high-concentration 2-D electron
gas (2DEG), high electron mobility, high frequency, and high
power [1], [2]. The GaN-based microwave power devices and
the related products have broad application prospects in the
field of radar and communication [3]–[5].
Recently, the research about the GaN microwave devices
in the bands of L, S, C, X, and Ka were hot topics [5]–[9].
In 2006, Eudyna Devices Inc. reported a 500-W GaN-based
HEMT for L-band applications with a gain of 17.8 dB,
an drain efficiency of 49%, and an operating voltage
of 65 V [6]. In 2007, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation presented
a GaN-based HEMT operating at C-band [10]. In 2014, an
X-band 8.5–10-GHz power amplifier was demonstrated, with
an internal power of 310 W, a power-added efficiency (PAE)
of 37%, a gain of 10.2 dB, and an operating voltage
Manuscript received November 13, 2017; revised January 1, 2018; accepted
February 14, 2018. Date of publication March 28, 2018; date of current
version May 8, 2018. This work was supported in part by MOST under
Grant 2017YFA0205800 and in part by NSFC under Grant 61450110442 and
Grant 61307066. (Corresponding author: Tong Zhang.)
L.-J. Zhang and X.-C. Fu are with the School of Electronic Science and
Engineering, Key Laboratory of Micro-Inertial Instrument and Advanced Nav-
igation Technology, Ministry of Education, and Joint International Research
Laboratory of Information Display and Visualization, Southeast University,
Nanjing 210096, China, and also with the Hebei Semiconductor Research
Institute, Shijiazhuang 050051, China.
J.-H. Mo, Y.-X. Cui, and X.-J. Li are with the Hebei Semiconductor
Research Institute, Shijiazhuang 050051, China.
G. Qian and T. Zhang are with the School of Electronic Science and
Engineering, Key Laboratory of Micro-Inertial Instrument and Advanced Nav-
igation Technology, Ministry of Education, and Joint International Research
Laboratory of Information Display and Visualization, Southeast University,
Nanjing 210096, China (e-mail: tzhang@seu.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LMWC.2018.2813878
1531-1309 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
of 65 V [11]. In 2015, Integra Technologies Inc. reported an
UHF-band HEMT with a power of 350 W, a PAE of 75%,
an operating voltage of up to 125 V [12]. In 2016, Wolfspeed
released a 900-W GaN HEMT operating at 50 V with an effi-
ciency of better than 65% [13]. In 2017, Integra Technologies
Inc. demonstrated an RF power transistor operating at 150 V
in L-band with a maximum power of 350 W and a PAE of
about 60% [14]. Meanwhile, it also announced that they have
the GaN L-band transistor operating at 50 V with an RF
power of 1200 W and a PAE of 75% [15]. The reported
GaN HEMTs in L-band cannot yet realize high power, high
operating voltage, and high PAE simultaneously. However,
the requirements for these performances in GaN microwave
devices are increasingly improved.
In this letter, a high-power GaN-on-SiC HEMT with high
operating voltage as well as high PAE was demonstrated for
L-band applications. By using SiN passivation and optimal
field plate, not only the breakdown voltage was improved but
also the current collapse at high drain voltage was suppressed.
The fabricated HEMT can operate at 1.3 GHz with a voltage
of 80 V, a power of 750 W, and a PAE of 80%.
II. D EVICE S TRUCTURE AND FABRICATION
Fig. 1(a) shows the schematic cross-sectional view of
the high-power AlGaN/GaN-on-SiC HEMT. The device con-
sists of field plate (F), plasma-enhanced chemical vapor
deposition (PE-CVD) SiN passivation layer, inductively
coupled-plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) SiN
passivation layer, GaN capping layer, AlGaN barrier layer,
AlN interlayers, GaN buffer layer, SiC substrate, and the
source (S), gate (G), and drain (D) contacts. To improve the
breakdown voltage, the gate-close-to-source structure, source
field plate, and gate field plate were utilized in the HEMT.
In addition, the T-shaped gate with sloping sides was also
employed to improve the breakdown voltage.
To realize the high-power HEMT, the GaN capping layer,
AlGaN barrier layer, AlN interlayers and GaN buffer layer
doped with Fe were grown by MOCVD on 3-in SiC wafer,
respectively. The thickness of lower AlN layer, GaN buffer
layer, upper AlN interlayer, AlGaN barrier layer, and GaN
capping layer are 40 nm, 2 μm, 2 nm, 21 nm, and 3 nm,
respectively. To obtain the optimal 2DEG concentrations
and mobility, the Al mole fraction of AlGaN was con-
trolled to be about 22%. By optimizing the grow conditions,
GaN-based epitaxial wafers with a 2DEG sheet carrier density

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ZHANG et al.: 750-W AlGaN/GaN HEMT OPERATING AT 80 V
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic cross-sectional view of the AlGaN/GaN HEMT
structure. (b) Packaged HEMT with a gate width of 50 mm. (c) Measurement
equipment of the HEMT for the output power, PAE, and gain. Inset: Schematic
of the T-type input matching network.
of 9.2 × 1012 cm−2 and a mobility of 2032 cm2 /(V · s) were
obtained.
In the HEMT, the lower AlN layer and the GaN buffer on
the SiC are aimed to reduce the crystalline mismatch with the
substrate. The upper AlN interlayer can improve the 2DEG
carrier density. The lower high-quality ICP-CVD SiN layer
and the upper PECVD SiN layer were, respectively, used to
suppress the current collapse, and protect the gate metal and
source-connected field plate. The thickness of the ICP-CVD
SiN passivation layer and the PE-CVD SiN layer are
150 and 100 nm, respectively.
To fabricate the HEMT, the source and drain ohmic contacts
were fabricated by evaporating Si/Ti/Al/Ni/Au layers and
following the rapid thermal annealing in nitrogen ambient.
The gate contact was fabricated by evaporating Ni/Au layers.
For device isolation, the active region of the device was
patterned and defined by ion implantation using B+ . The
T-shaped gate was made by the techniques of step-and-scan
lithography, deposition, and etching. The drain and source
metal layers were thicken by electroplating process to meet the
requirement of high power. Finally, the thinning and through-
hole grounding processes to the back of the wafer were
performed. Using to these processes, we fabricated a series of
HEMTs with gate width of from 2.5 mm (0.625 mm × 4) to
50 mm (0.625 mm×8×10). In the device, the source-to-drain
distance (L sd ), the gate-to-source distance (L gs ), the gate-to-
drain distance (L gd ), and the gate length (L g ) are 6, 1.5, 4,
and 0.5 μm, respectively. The lengths of gate field plate and
source field plate are 0.4 and 2 μm, respectively.
Fig. 1(b) shows the image of packaged HEMT. Fig. 1(c)
shows the measurement equipment of the HEMT. A T-type
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441
Fig. 2. (a) Pulsed I –V measurement of the fabricated HEMT with gate
width of 2.5 mm. Lines with solid marks Vgsq = 0 V and Vdsq = 0 V.
Lines with hollow marks Vgsq = −3 V and Vdsq = 80 V. (b) Measured gain,
(c) output power, and (d) PAE of the HEMT with working voltage of 50, 60,
70, and 80 V, respectively.
input matching network for the package constituting of gold
wires (L 1 and L 2 ) and capacitor (C) was designed for the
HEMT according to the gate width, operating frequency, and
output power of the device, as shown in the inset of Fig. 1(c).
By using the ADS software, we simulated the S-parameters
and load–pull of the device based on the models of the
chip, package, capacitance, and gold wires. By the simulation,
the optimal parameters of the T-type network including the
capacitance value and the diameter and length of gold wire
were obtained. Furthermore, the matching circuit outside the
package was designed based on the T-type network by utilizing
the ADS software. Based on the optimal design, the capacitors
were fabricated on ceramic substrate with high dielectric
constant. The inductances were realized by using high-Q
gold wires with a diameter of 50 μm. The output impedance
was 50 .
III. M EASUREMENTS AND D ISCUSSION
In order to evaluate the performance of the fabricated
devices, we measured the electrical characteristics of the
device with 2.5-mm-wide gate as an example. The device
showed a breakdown voltage of about 175 V at Ileak
of 1 mA/mm, and about 300 V at 7 mA/mm. In addition,
pulsed I –V measurements were performed on the transistor,
as shown in Fig. 2(a). A pulse width of 1 μs associated
to a duty cycle of 10% was applied to both the gate and
drain voltages. It is known from Fig. 2(a) that the output
current drops from 0.87 A/mm (Vgsq = 0 V, Vdsq = 0 V) to
0.673 A/mm (Vgsq = −3 V, Vdsq = 80 V) at the point of
(Vgs = 1 V, Vds = 10 V). The current collapse is about 22.6%.
By using the equipment shown in Fig. 1(c), the gain, output
power, and PAE of the device were measured, respectively.
In the test, the pulse width was 50 μs, and the duty cycle
was 5%. In addition, an output matching network with second-
order harmonic and a dc bias conditions of Vgs = −3.2 V and
Ids = 5 mA were utilized in the measurement. Fig. 2(b) shows
the measured gain of the HEMT with a drain voltage of 50,
60, 70, and 80 V, respectively. Fig. 2(c) and (d) shows the
442
Fig. 3. Thermal resistance test of the HEMT.
TABLE I
P ERFORMANCE C OMPARISON OF S OME HEMT S
associated output power and PAE, respectively. The device
shows a power density of 15 W/mm and a power gain of
about 16.8 dB. The output power of the device is increased
with the input powers. The device shows a maximum output
power of 55.5 dBm (350 W) and a PAE of 81% at 50 V. When
the working voltage is increased to 80 V, the output power is
improved to 58.8 dBm (750 W) with a PAE of about 80%.
Typically, there are A, B, and C three working states for the
device. At these states, the conducting angles are 2π, π–2 π,
and 0–π, respectively. The theoretical PAE of the three states
are 50%, 78.5%, and 90%. The fabricated HEMT in this
letter works at the C state, and thus the PAE can reach up
to 80%. In addition, when the drain voltage was increased
from 50 to 80 V, the real part of output impedance was
increased from 2.2 to 6.1, and the imaginary part was changed
from −1.1 j to 2.9 j . In this process, the smaller imaginary
part indicates the easer tuning for the output impedance
to be 50 .
Cu/Mo/Cu package with high thermal conductivity was
utilized to reduce the thermal resistance and ensure the device
was operated at a safe junction temperature. The thermal
resistance of the HEMT was tested from 70 °C to 148 °C under
a voltage of 80 V and a power of 60 W, as shown in Fig. 3.
By the measurement, we obtained the thermal resistance Rth
of 1.3 K/W. The device shows a contact resistance (Rc )
of 0.3  · mm. In addition, under the bias conditions of
Vgs = −1.5 V and Vds = 28 V, the device shows an extrinsic
transconductance (G m ) of 360 mS/mm. The f T and f max of
the device are 14 GHz and 18 GHz, respectively. The f max is
little higher than the f T . This is because the single gate width
of 0.625 mm is too large.
Table I compares the performances of the HEMT with
some reported works. The excellent performances in L-band
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IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 28, NO. 5, MAY 2018
reached or exceed the level of the recently reported
X-band [11], P-band [12], and L-band high-power HEMTs.
References [13]–[15] almost represents the highest level of
L-band GaN-based HEMT reported in the last two years. The
reported device in [14] shows a higher working voltage than
that of in this letter, but the output power is relatively lower.
On the contrary, [13] and [15] reported GaN-based HEMT
with higher output power than that of in this letter, but the
operating voltage is lower than this letter.
IV. C ONCLUSION
In this letter, a 1.3-GHz L-band HEMT simultaneously
realized high voltage, high power, and high PAE was demon-
strated. The breakdown voltage is greater than 300 V. The
operating voltage reaches up to 80 V. In addition, the output
power reached to 750 W with a power gain of about 16.8 dB
and a PAE of 80%. These results prove that the developed
GaN HEMT is suitable for L-band high-power applications.
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