Tyndall and Arralis sign €400,000 deal to develop high-volume manufacturing process for scaling mmWave integration and packaging technologies

Arralis Ltd of Limerick, Ireland - which has a design center in Belfast and manufactures RF, microwave and millimetre-wave devices, modules and antennas up to and beyond 110GHz (the W-band) for aerospace/satellite and security markets - has entered into a €400,000 R&D agreement with Tyndall National Institute (a research flagship of University College Cork in Ireland) to develop next-generation mmWave fabrication technology for applications such as autonomous vehicles (AVs), satellite communications, 5G and radar imaging.

The project “combines Tyndall’s micro-fabrication expertise in thick-film electrochemical simulation, processing, integration and testing with the design capabilities of Arralis for the rapidly developing mmWave device market,” says Tyndall’s senior staff scientist Dr James Rohan.

Supported by Enterprise Ireland through the Innovation Partnership program, the development of new monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) is regarded as vital, given the growth of data-centric traffic, increased demands on existing communications networks and future Internet of Things (IoT) application requirements including autonomous vehicles and satellite communications.

“Our data-hungry society demands constant, uninterrupted access to more and more information, and this demand will only increase in the future,” says Marie Bourke, Arralis’ business process manager & technical program manager. “New cost-effective, high-volume and geometry-scaled mmWave manufacturing is needed to meet future IoT demands,” she adds. “The partnership of two leaders in this area, Arralis and Tyndall, will enable us to take a step closer to global interconnectivity through new integrated mmWave technologies.”

As autonomous vehicles require unimpeded data access to connected vehicles, Ka- and W-band wireless communications are essential. Ka-band supports high data rates, device connectivity, data collection and traffic handling capacity at lower latency than existing technologies, leading to the expectation that 5G will be up to 60 times faster than 4G networks.

“The combination of world-class research at Tyndall, and market leading manufacturing expertise of Arralis ensure that this will be a highly effective collaboration as well as a timely one, given the proposed testing of autonomous vehicles on Ireland’s road infrastructure in the coming years,” reckons Carlo Webster, senior strategic business development executive at Tyndall. “Tomorrow’s cars will be computers on wheels and will require Ka-band mmWave technology to simplify and support the communication protocol between the car and its environment. Arralis is a leader in the field of mmWave design and, together with Tyndall, we will accelerate innovation in this and other areas.”

See related items:

Arralis launches new W-band MMICs

Arralis releases first 94GHz transmit and receive core chips

Tags: Tyndall

Visit: www.tyndall.ie

Visit: www.arralis.com