The impact of UV irradiation process on the AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor heterostructure field-effect transistor was investigated. Due to the high intensity UV irradiation before the gate dielectric deposition, the conductivity of AlGaN/GaN structure and the drain saturation current of the transistor increased by about 10 %. However, the pinch off characteristics of transistor was severely deformed by the process. By comparing the electrical characteristics of the transistors, it was proposed that the high intensity UV irradiation formed a sub-channel under the two dimensional electron gas of AlGaN/GaN structure even without additional impurity injection.