We have demonstrated that a thin layer of Al2O3 grown by wet-oxidation of wet-recessed AlGaN barrier layer in an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure can significantly improve the performance of GaN based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The wet-etching leads to a damage free recession of the gate region and compensates for the decreased gate capacitance and increased gate leakage. The performance improvement is manifested as an increase in the saturation drain current, transconductance, and unity current gain frequency (f(T)). This is further augmented with a large decrease in the subthreshold current. The performance improvement is primarily ascribed to an increase in the effective velocity in two-dimensional electron gas without sacrificing gate capacitance, which make the wet-recessed gate oxide-HEMTs much more scalable in comparison to their conventional counterpart. The improved scalability leads to an increase in the product of unity current gain frequency and gate length (f(T) x L-g). (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.