Gate-width scaling modulates electron velocity in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

M Mingyan Wang Y Yixu Yao S Sen Huang K Ke Wei (The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning Road, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China) X Xinhua Wang X Xinyu Liu Y Yuanjie Lv (The Application Specific Integrated Circuit, Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute 2 , Shijiazhuang 050051,) H Heng Zhou (National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry) C Chao Liu P Peng Cui (MOE Key Laboratory of Functionalized Molecular Solids, Anhui Laboratory of Molecule-Based Materials, College of Chemistry and Materials Science) Z Zhaojun Lin (School of Integrated Circuits, Shandong University 2 , Jinan 250101,) K Kevin J. Chen

Abstract

In this Letter, the impact of gate-width (Wg) scaling on the electron transport and electrical characteristics of GaN HEMTs is investigated using an experiment-validated coupled drift-diffusion and Monte Carlo framework. For gate length (Lg) = 0.2 μm devices with Wg scaled from 200 to 80 μm, the peak ve increases by 10%, leading to higher normalized transconductance (gm) and Id, primarily due to reduced lattice temperature (TL) and the polarization Coulomb field scattering. Meanwhile, the maximum cutoff frequency (fT,max) slightly degrades because the reduced total transconductance (gm,tot) increases the extrinsic delay (τext). These results provide a quantitative transport-based explanation of the Wg-dependent performance in GaN HEMTs.

Article Details

Volume / Issue Vol. 128, Issue 22
Published June 01, 2026
ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher American Institute of Physics

Journal Info

Applied Physics Letters

American Institute of Physics

ISSN: 0003-6951 Physical Sciences

Authors (12)

M

Mingyan Wang

Y

Yixu Yao

S

Sen Huang

K

Ke Wei

The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning Road, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China

X

Xinhua Wang

X

Xinyu Liu

Y

Yuanjie Lv

The Application Specific Integrated Circuit, Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute 2 , Shijiazhuang 050051,

H

Heng Zhou

National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry

C

Chao Liu

P

Peng Cui

MOE Key Laboratory of Functionalized Molecular Solids, Anhui Laboratory of Molecule-Based Materials, College of Chemistry and Materials Science

Z

Zhaojun Lin

School of Integrated Circuits, Shandong University 2 , Jinan 250101,

K

Kevin J. Chen