An in‐plane gate field‐effect transistor is characterized by ultrafast electro‐optic sampling. The transistor is monolithically integrated with photoconductive switches in coplanar waveguide and <0.5 ps measurement time resolution is achieved. The gate‐drain capacitance of the transistor is obtained as 1.8 fF at zero drain voltage from displacement current transients. The gate‐drain capacitance is dominated by parasitic capacitance and the intrinsic gate‐drain capacitance is estimated as less than 0.2 fF. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.