Electrical switching characteristics using polycrystalline silicon-germanium (poly-Si1-xGex) gate for P-channel power trench MOSFETs was investigated. Switching time reduction of over 22% was observed when the boron-doped poly-Si gate was replaced with a similarly boron-doped poly-SiGe gate on the P-channel power MOSFETs. The fall time (T-f) on MOSFETs with poly-SiGe gate, was found to be similar to 11 ns lesser than the poly-Si gate MOSFET which is similar to 60% improvement in switching performance. However, all the switching improvement was observed during the fall times (T-f). The reason could be the higher series resistance in the switching test circuit masking any reduction in the rise times (T-r). Faster switching is achieved due to a lower gate resistance (R-g) offered by the poly-SiGe gate electrode as compared to poly-silicon (psi) material. The pSi gate resistance was found to be 6.25 Omega compared to 3.75 Omega on the poly-SiGe gate measured on the same device. Lower gate resistance (R-g) also means less power is lost during switching thereby less heat is generated in the device. A very uniform boron doping profile was achieved with-in the pSiGe gate electrode, which is critical for uniform die turn on and better thermal response for the power trench MOSFET. pSiGe thin film optimization, properties and device characteristics are discussed in details in the following sections. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.