The effect of different SiN
x thicknesses on the performance of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) was investigated in this paper. The current, transconductance (G
m), cut-off frequency (f
T), maximum oscillation frequency (f
max), power performance, and output third-order intercept
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The effect of different SiN
x thicknesses on the performance of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) was investigated in this paper. The current, transconductance (G
m), cut-off frequency (f
T), maximum oscillation frequency (f
max), power performance, and output third-order intercept point (OIP3) of devices with three different SiN
x thicknesses (150 nm, 200 nm, and 250 nm) were measured and analyzed. The DC measurements revealed an increase in both the drain-source current (I
DS) and G
m values of the device with increasing SiN
x thickness. The S-parameter measurement results show that devices with a higher SiN
x thickness exhibit improved f
T and f
max. Regarding power performance, thicker SiN
x devices also improve the output power density (P
out) and power-added efficiency (PAE) in the Ka-band. In addition, the two-tone measurement results at 28 GHz show that the OIP3 increased from 35.60 dBm to 40.87 dBm as the SiN
x thickness increased from 150 nm to 250 nm. The device’s characteristics improved by appropriately increasing the SiN
x thickness.
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