23 July 2012

Military communications, electronic warfare and radar applications continuing to drive GaN development

Product announcements during the 2012 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Montreal, Canada in late June highlighted how military applications will continue to grow and drive the fundamental development of semiconductor technologies such as gallium nitride (GaN), according to the Strategy Analytics Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service report ‘Defense Electronics Industry Review: June 2012’. The report also details significant defense industry news, including product announcements, milestones, contract activity and defense industry financial performance.

During IMS 2012, Strategy Analytics sponsored a breakfast session in conjunction with Microwave Journal, with participation from Cree, Nitronex, NXP, RFMD, TriQuint and UMS. Presentations confirmed the applicability of GaN to communications, electronic warfare, and radar requirement, comments Strategy Analytics.

“Panelists highlighted examples where GaN technology will improve performance, efficiency and bandwidth as the military invests in next-generation systems,” notes Eric Higham, ADS service director North America.

Other product announcements at IMS 2012 included Toshiba’s new X-band GaN hybrid IC (HIC), targeted at transmit-receive modules (TRMs) used in active electronically scanned array (AESA) and passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar applications.

“Semiconductor technologies also underpinned military system-level activity in June,” remarks Asif Anwar, director of the ADS service at Strategy Analytics. “Boeing and Raytheon received contracts related to AN/APG-79 AESA radar upgrades, while Northrop Grumman demonstrated the capabilities of the company’s AN/AAQ-37 distributed aperture system (DAS) and AN/APG-81 AESA radar, both featured on the F-35,” he adds.

Strategy Analytics notes that the Eurosatory 2012 conference in Paris, France also took place in June, where defense companies showcased new products and capabilities across communications, electronic warfare and radar, with a focus on land and air domains.

Tags: GaN

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