The effects of the composition of oxynitride passivations (SiOxNy) deposited by plasma enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD) at room temperature on the microwave performance of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were investigated. Five different SiOxNy passivating layers were deposited covering the whole range of dielectrics combinations from SiOx to SiNy. Their impacts on the HEMT performance were studied by means of DC, S-parameters, pulsed IV and load-pull measurements. The oxynitride dielectric with a refraction index of 1.58 was shown to be an effective SiOxNy passivation for limiting the gate-lag effects in the HEMTs and at the same time increasing the breakdown voltage of the device. It is thus a promising passivation layer for microwave power high voltage and high power applications. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.