A New Study on the Temperature and Bias Dependence of the Kink Effects in S22 and h21 for the GaN HEMT Technology

The aim of this feature article is to provide a deep insight into the origin of the kink effects affecting the output reflection coefficient (S-22) and the short-circuit current-gain (h(21)) of solid-state electronic devices. To gain a clear and comprehensive understanding of how these anomalous phenomena impact device performance, the kink effects in S-22 and h(21) are thoroughly analyzed over a broad range of bias and temperature conditions. The analysis is accomplished using high-frequency scattering (S-) parameters measured on a gallium-nitride (GaN) high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT). The experiments show that the kink effects might become more or less severe depending on the bias and temperature conditions. By using a GaN HEMT equivalent-circuit model, the experimental results are analyzed and interpreted in terms of the circuit elements to investigate the origin of the kink effects and their dependence on the operating condition. This empirical analysis provides valuable information, simply achievable by conventional instrumentation, that can be used not only by GaN foundries to optimize the technology processes and, as a consequence, device performance, but also by designers that need to face out with the pronounced kink effects of this amazing technology.