This article deals with the analysis of the effects of 650 nm laser light exposure of AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs employed in X‐band low‐noise amplifiers (LNAs). The devices have scaled gate widths of 100, 200, and 300 μm and a gate length of 0.25 μm. They were characterized under dark and illuminated conditions through scattering and noise parameter measurements in the 2–18 GHz frequency range. Starting from the experimental data, LNAs have then been designed and tailored to each device type in dark mode operation over the 7.5–8.5 GHz frequency range. Subsequently, the performance of the LNAs under light exposure has been evaluated by employing the illuminated device data. Therefore, a comparative analysis of the observed variations is here reported to assess the influence of the red laser beam on the amplifier's response with a special concern for the noise behavior due to the inherent interest in optical control of microwave circuitry for high‐data‐rate, low‐noise telecommunication systems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2437–2443, 2016