while this restriction inhibits certain circuit possibilities as the gate must remain reverse-biased and cannot therefore exceed a certain voltage of forward bias, mesfets analog and digital devices work reasonably well if kept within the confines of design limits. the most critical aspect of the design is the gate metal extent over the switching region. generally the narrower the gate modulated carrier channel the better the frequency handling abilities, overall. spacing of the source and drain with respect to the gate, and the lateral extent of the gate are important though somewhat less critical design parameters.