GaN on SiC Radar/EW MMIC Production Capacity

The DPA Title III gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon carbide (SiC) Radar/EW monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) Production Capability Project will establish a domestic, economically viable, open-foundry merchant supplier production capability for narrow and wideband MMICs employing GaN epitaxy on 100mm SiC substrates. An open-foundry merchant supplier is one whose business model makes its production capabilities available for use by external companies to fabricate chips to their own specifications. It is evidenced by the presence of a process design kit (PDK) that captures the design rules and processes in a manner that allows external users to design chips that meet their needs in a small number (preferable first pass) of design iterations. The overarching goal of this project is to achieve a manufacturing readiness level (MRL) of 8, which means that the processes for manufacturing S-Band and wide bandwidth (6 18 GHz) GaN on SiC MMIC components have been approved by the Recipient’s Technical/Management Review Board for release to production and are ready to support Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP). Related objectives are to demonstrate relatively high yields and reliability and to reduce cost and throughput times for S-band and wide bandwidth GaN on SiC Power Amplifiers (PAs) of specified complexity. See http://www.dodmrl.com for further information about Manufacturing Readiness Assessments (MRAs) and Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRLs).