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News

27 September 2007

 

Raytheon awarded $6.5m for integration of compound semiconductors on CMOS silicon

The US Office of Naval Research has awarded Raytheon Company of Waltham, MA, USA a $6.5m contract to develop affordable, high-performance ICs for electronic-driven military systems.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding the contract as part of its Compound Semiconductor Materials on Silicon (COSMOS) program, managed by Dr Mark Rosker of DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) in Arlington, VI.

A Raytheon-led team will integrate high-performance compound semiconductors with low-cost commercial complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) silicon wafers to improve cost-benefit performance compared with either technology on its own.

COSMOS aims to culminate in the demonstration of a heterogeneously integrated 16-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) through placing compound semiconductor and silicon-based transistors within a 5 micron proximity, with ≤ 5 micron minimum pitch of the heterogeneous interconnect vias and yield of ≥ 99.99% of the heterogeneous interconnects.

“The objective is to develop a high-resolution analog-to-digital converter with low power consumption. However, the benefits of the program go significantly beyond the specific objective,” says Dr Katherine Herrick, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) program manager. “The processes lead to advanced low-cost analog and digital, microwave and millimeter-wave integrated circuits with applications for next-generation radar, communications and electronic warfare systems.”

Teaming with Raytheon IDS on the COSMOS project are Raytheon Systems Ltd in Glenrothes, Scotland, UK; Teledyne Scientific Imaging Company in Thousand Oaks, CA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA; Paradigm Research LLC in Windham, NH; IQE in Bethlehem, PA; engineered substrate manufacturer SOITEC in Grenoble, France; and Silicon Valley Technology Center in San Jose, CA.

“Our team’s process of directly growing a compound semiconductor on a uniquely engineered silicon substrate provides a new technical approach that is creating a class of integrated circuits that will enable more affordable systems for the warfighter,” says Mark Russell, vice president IDS Engineering.

See related items:

NSF grant for integration of compound semiconductor devices on silicon

Intel claims “first high-performance compound devices on silicon”

Visit: www.darpa.mil/MTO/Programs/cosmos

Visit: www.raytheon.com