Device linearity and intermodulation distortion comparison of dual material gate and conventional AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor

0026-2714/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2010.09.033 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 11 24115580; fax E-mail addresses: [email protected] ( (R.S. Gupta). 1 Tel.: +91 11 24115580; fax: +91 11 24110606. In the work proposed, linearity performance of dual material gate (DMG) AlGaN/GaN HEMT has been analyzed and compared with the corresponding performance of Single Material Gate (SMG) AlGaN/ GaN HEMT using ATLAS device simulation. Specifically, we investigate the linearity of DMG and conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMT based on the linearity metrics such as gm, gm2 , gm3 , VIP2, VIP3, IIP3, IMD3 and 1-dB compression point. The impact of various device parameters on the device linearity such as the channel length, doping and thickness of the barrier and spacer layer, Al mole fraction and the work function difference of the two gate metals has also been investigated. It is observed that a suitably designed DMG AlGaN/GaN HEMT can considerably improve the linearity performance and minimize intermodulation distortion due to reduced drain induced barrier lowering and high-field effect; and a more uniform electric field for applications in 3-G mobile communication and low noise amplifiers. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.