News: Microelectronics
4 November 2024
MACOM to lead US CHIPS Act-funded GaN-on-SiC technology development project
MACOM Technology Solutions Inc of Lowell, MA, USA (which designs and makes RF, microwave, analog and mixed-signal and optical semiconductor technologies) has been selected to lead a development project to establish gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon carbide (SiC) process technologies for radio frequency (RF) and microwave applications. Funded by the CHIPS and Science Act through the US Department of Defense (DoD), the project will focus on developing semiconductor manufacturing processes for GaN-based materials and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) operating efficiently at high voltage and at millimeter-wave (mmW) frequencies.
MACOM is a member of the Commercial Leap-Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Microelectronics Commons Hub and will work with North Carolina State University (NCSU), NCSU spin-off Adroit Materials Inc of Cary, NC, USA and the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) on the project. The year 1 value of this award is $3.4m.
This award expands on a series of GaN technology development activities with the DoD, including a 2021 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) where MACOM transferred AFRL’s 0.14μm GaN-on-SiC MMIC process to its Massachusetts-based US Trusted Foundry. This was followed in 2023 by a $4m AFRL contract to develop GaN technologies for mmW applications and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) award valued at up to $10.1m targeting improved heat dissipation for high-power applications. Earlier this year, MACOM was awarded a separate CHIPS-funded GaN technology development contract worth up to $11.4m.
“Our strategy is to increase domestic production of state-of-the-art RF and microwave power technologies to support our military’s radar and sensing applications and to enable next-generation telecommunications networks,” says president & CEO Stephen G. Daly. “The technologies and products developed under these contracts will help keep the United States and MACOM on the leading edge,” he believes.
US DoD awards $39.4m for NC State-led Microelectronics Commons regional innovation hub CLAWS
MACOM awarded $4m USAF contract to further develop GaN-on-SiC process technology
