Gallium nitride high-electron mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs) have attractive properties, low on-resistances and fast switching speeds. This paper presents the characteristics of a normally-on GaN HEMT that we fabricated. Further, the circuit operation of a Class-E amplifier is analyzed. Experimental results demonstrate the excellent performance of the gate drive circuit for the normally-on GaN HEMT and the 13.56MHz radio frequency (RF) power amplifier.