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Date: 2nd Dec 2010
Triquint Semiconductor bags defense contract
of 17.5 million for making GaN devices
TriQuint Semiconductor has announced that it has been awarded
a Defense Production Act Title III gallium nitride (GaN)
manufacturing development contract by the US Air Force Research
Laboratory (AFRL). The overall goal of the contract is to
increase yield, lower costs and improve time-to-market cycles
for defense and commercial GaN integrated circuits. The
contract was awarded based on TriQuint's success and experience
developing new gallium nitride semiconductor technologies
and products.
TriQuint's new GaN contract is divided into three phases
with goals and assessment criteria at each milestone. The
primary first phase goal is to make a baseline assessment
of manufacturing readiness, according to TriQuint Vice President
Tom Cordner. In the second program phase, TriQuint will
work to improve and refine the production process to reach
a manufacturing readiness level (MRL) of 8 in developing
its advanced MMICs. In the final phase, which is expected
to conclude in 2013, the program will demonstrate MMIC fabrication
that meets full performance, cost and capacity goals. TriQuint
is the prime contractor and all the work is to be performed
at its Richardson, Texas facility.
"TriQuint is very excited to participate in this program
to accelerate gallium nitride manufacturing technology.
This program will take the technology from the early stages
of production to a mature manufacturing process enabling
next-generation systems," Cordner remarked. "We
have successfully transferred process technologies into
manufacturing at TriQuint for more than 25 years and we
look forward to these new challenges and opportunities."
In comparison to the popular Silicon semiconductor material,
Gallium nitride offer advantages such as high voltage operation,
greater power density (more power per square millimeter)
and efficiency.
TriQuint Semiconductor is a leading supplier of RF semiconductor
ICs and other such components to Boeing Company, Lockheed
Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and other
major defense contractors.
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