Influence of epitaxial structure in the noise figure of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

The effect of noise figure of different AlGaN/GaN high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) epitaxy structures is reported. The addition of a thin AlN layer between the barrier and channel gives better performance at biasings other than the best for minimum noise figure. However, varying Al composition in the HEMT barrier does not change the noise performance, contrary to a 2003 study by Lu et al. The measurements are checked with both the Pospieszalski and van der Ziel (Pucel) models. The models are used on six different samples, helping to reinforce the measurements and showing the strengths and weaknesses of each.