Microsemi Corp of Aliso Viejo, CA, USA (which designs and makes analog and RF devices, mixed-signal integrated circuits and subsystems) has announced its entry into the monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) market.
Building on its history in RF, microwave and millimeter-wave solutions, the new portfolio initially consists of 16 products spanning DC-40GHz and includes wideband amplifier, low-noise amplifier and switch products designed for the defense, communications, instrumentation and aerospace industries.
Microsemi has active MMIC product developments using both established gallium arsenide (GaAs) and emerging gallium nitride (GaN) technologies. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, the addressable market for GaAs MMICs in Microsemi’s targeted markets such as defense and communications will be about $500m by 2015. ABI Research also estimates the market for GaN MMICs to be about $100m by 2018.
Microsemi says that the attributes of its highly differentiated MMIC products lead to faster design cycle times and smaller overall solution sizes in electronic warfare (EW), signal intelligence (SIGINT), military communication and other applications such as instrumentation equipment.
“Leveraging Microsemi’s extensive experience and capabilities in these markets has allowed us to work closely with industry-leading customers to define and develop products that solve engineers’ problems in new and creative ways,” says MMIC product line director Ray Crampton. “Response to our initial MMICs has been exceptional and we are aggressively working to expand our offering with numerous active developments in both GaAs and GaN-on-SiC technologies,” he adds.
Microsemi says that its new MMIC products include several differentiating factors, including:
the MMA001AA DC-20GHz wideband amplifier, which has positive gain slope with over 17dB gain at 20GHz; the MMS002AA single-pole, double-throw switch, which features about 45dB of isolation from DC-20GHz; and the MMA016AA DC- 15GHz amplifier, which has a power-selectable feature that allows users to adjust power consumption based on the requirements of a particular application.
The new products are currently available for orders. Microsemi is also showcasing its MMIC, diode, transistor and module solutions in booth #321 at the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2014) in Tampa Bay, FL (3-5 June).