News

2 June 2009

 

ARL contracts TriQuint to lead $16.5m Phase III of WBGS DARPA program

RF device maker and foundry services provider TriQuint Semiconductor Inc of Hillsboro, OR, USA has been contracted by the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, MD to lead the two-year $16.5m Phase III of the R&D program Wide Bandgap Semiconductors for RF Applications (WBGS-RF). Funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the WBGS-RF program is designed to develop new high-power, high-efficiency wideband amplifiers based on gallium nitride (GaN) for defense applications.

TriQuint has undertaken GaN research for both defense and civilian applications since 1999. In addition to its military design and manufacturing work, TriQuint has released GaN amplifiers for wireless communications networks as well as other applications, along with offering commercial GaN foundry services since last year.

The Phase III contract was awarded on the basis of TriQuint surpassing goals including improved power density, efficiency and ruggedness for GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) devices as part of its focus on the wideband element of the WBGS-RF program's $15.8m Phase II, which began in 2005. The other two elements focused on X-band frequencies (Raytheon/Cree) and Q-band frequencies (Northrop Grumman). Already, in late March, Raytheon was awarded a $23.9m, 38-month Phase III contract from DARPA and the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to continue work on the WBGS program, with the aim of demonstrating the capabilities of GaN to improve the performance of missile defense radars.

“In Phase II, we developed a high-performance, reliable gallium nitride process with excellent reproducibility and high yield,” says Cathy Lee, TriQuint’s Phase III program manager. “Since the program began we have achieved key milestones including 48V operation and superb high-frequency performance.”

Phase III now seeks to extend device reliability for 48V operation while increasing operational lifetime and extending performance to cover the high end of contracted frequency ranges.

Key Phase III program tasks include material optimization as well as device and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) development. TriQuint says that the contract emphasizes reliability, yield, uniformity and reproducibility. The program also includes a MMIC validation process.

TriQuint is the prime Phase III contractor and is teamed with defense contractors Lockheed-Martin and BAE Systems, as well as IQE-RF in Somerset, NJ (a subsidiary of epiwafer foundry IQE plc of Cardiff, UK). II-VI Inc remains the program’s primary supplier of high-quality silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. University partners Dr Michael Shur of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY and Dr Jesus del Alamo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) continue their roles in device physics, reliability and modeling.

See related item:

Raytheon awarded $29.3m Phase 3 contract for wide-bandgap program

Search: TriQuint ARL DARPA GaN

Visit: www.darpa.mil/MTO/programs/wbgsrf

Visit: www.triquint.com