Raytheon Company of Waltham, MA, USA has been honored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) for successful completion of a Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III gallium nitride (GaN) production improvement program, culminating more than a decade of government and Raytheon investment in GaN radio-frequency circuit technology.
“Raytheon has been at the forefront in advancing the maturity and production-readiness of GaN technology, and this recognition reflects our mutual collaboration and achievement, having worked closely with our customers,” says Joe Biondi, VP of Advanced Technology for Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) business in Tewksbury, MA. “The limitless benefits of GaN in performance and reliability deliver enhanced capability and affordability,” he adds.
Raytheon also demonstrated that the reliability of its GaN technology exceeded the requirement for insertion into production military systems. This maturation of GaN resulted in a Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) production capability of ‘8’, the highest level obtained by any organization in the defense industry for this technology. MRL is a measure used by the OSD and many of the world’s major companies to assess the maturity of manufacturing readiness.
Raytheon says that GaN technology extends the warfighter’s reach into the battlespace by increasing radar ranges, sensitivity and search capabilities. Through the Title III program, GaN yield was improved by more than 300% and cost was reduced more than 75% for monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). Such devices (operating at microwave frequencies, i.e. 300MHz to 300GHz) typically perform functions such as microwave mixing, power amplification, low-noise amplification and high-frequency switching.
GaN technology also supports a reduction in the size of a system’s antenna, which can provide flexibility, improve transportability and reduce acquisition and lifecycle costs without sacrificing performance, says Raytheon.
