CUSTOMIZED SHIELD PLATE FOR A FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR

A customized shield plate field effect transistor (FET) includes a semiconductor layer, a gate dielectric, a gate electrode, and at least one customized shield plate. The shield plate includes a conductive layer overlying a portion of the gate electrode, one of the gate electrode sidewalls, and a portion of the substrate adjacent to the sidewall. The shield plate defines a customized shield plate edge at its lateral boundary. A distance between the customized shield plate edge and the sidewall of the gate electrode varies along a length of the sidewall. The customized shield plate edge may form triangular, curved, and other shaped shield plate elements. The configuration of the customized shield plate edge may reduce the area of the resulting capacitor and thereby achieve lower parasitic capacitance associated with the FET. The FET may be implemented as a lateral diffused MOS (LDMOS) transistor suitable for high power radio frequency applications.