The introduction of plasma damage in InGaP/GaAs and AlGaAs/GaAs high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) has been investigated using both inductively coupled plasma and electron cyclotron resonance Ar discharges. The saturated drain-source current is found to be decreased through introduction of compensating deep levels into the InGaP or AlGaAs donor layer. The degradation of device performance is a strong function or ion energy and ion flux, and an advantage of both high density plasma tools is that ion energy can be reduced by increasing the plasma density. Increasing process pressure and source power, and decreasing radio-frequency chuck power produce the lowest amounts of plasma damage in HEMTs.