Abstract

Knee voltage, pinch-off voltage, breakdown voltage and maximum rf drain current clip output I-V waveform of a MESFET and cause gain compression and power saturation. Thus, verage rf gate and drain currents can be used to determine gain compression mechanisms for MESFETs. There is a distinct signature in average rf gate and drain currents for each gain compression mechanism. Narrow recess and wide recess MESFET exhibits different average rf gate and drain current behavior when a device is biased toward maximum drain current. The average rf drain current decreases for a wide-recessed MESFET when the device is biased toward maximum drain current and tuned for maximum output power.