Abstract: P-type impurities in a gate electrode is positively made to diffuse into a p-type impurity diffusion layer and an electrical p-n junction face in a gate electrode region is formed either within or on the bottom face of the p-type impurity diffusion layer, and thereby the effect that an interface state arising on a regrowth interface has over the p-n junction face can be well suppressed. This results in an improvement in high frequency characteristic of the JFET.

Abstract: The present invention provides a field effect transistor (FET) having, on a semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate, a buffer layer; an active layer that includes a channel layer made of a first conductive-type epitaxial growth layer (e.g. InGaAs); source/drain electrodes formed on a first conductive-type contact layer which is formed either on said active layer or on a lateral face thereof; a gate layer made of a second conductive-type epitaxial growth layer (e.g. p+-GaAs); and a gate electrode formed on said gate layer; which further has, between said second conductive-type gate layer and said channel layer, a semiconductor layer (e.g. InGaP) that rapidly lowers the energy of the valance band spreading from said gate layer to said channel layer. The present invention improves withstand voltage characteristic of a FET having a pn junction in a gate region (JFET) and realizes stable operations of a JFET.