The high power microwave (HPM) damage effect on the AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) is studied by simulation and experiments. Simulated results suggest that the HPM damage to pHEMT is due to device bu-out caused by the emerging current path and strong electric field beneath the gate. Besides, the results demonstrate that the damage power threshold decreases but the energy threshold slightly increases with the increase of pulse-width, indicating that HPM with longer pulse-width requires lower power density but more energy to cause the damage to pHEMT. The empirical formulas are proposed to describe the pulse-width dependence. Then the experimental data validate the pulse-width dependence and verify that the proposed formula P=55τ?0.06 is capable of quickly and accurately estimating the HPM damage susceptibility of pHEMT. Finally the interior observation of damaged samples by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) illustrates that the failure mechanism of the HPM damage to pHEMT is indeed device bu-out and the location beneath the gate near the source side is most susceptible to bu-out, which is in accordance with the simulated results.