Influence of passivation on High-Power AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices at 10GHz.

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTS on SiC) were characterized before and after SiO2/Si3N4 passivation. DC, small signal, pulsed and large signal measurements were performed. We discuss the role and the influence of passivation on the device performance and characteristics. A good correlation is observed between pulsed and power measurements. At 10GHz, a 6.3W/mm power density with a 36% PAE at 2dB of compression was obtained after passivation, while only 2.9W/mm before passivation