In conjunction with the Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC) in Orlando, FL (26-29 November), RF front-end component maker and foundry services provider TriQuint Semiconductor Inc of Hillsboro, OR, USA has announced what it claims is record gallium nitride (GaN) circuit reliability, exceeding previous industry standards.
TriQuint says that its new GaN benchmark supports highly reliable integrated RF solutions that use less power, are compact, and serve wide frequency ranges. Any RF system can benefit from reduced maintenance and longer operational lifetimes arising from increased reliability such as commercial and defense RF infrastructure, broadband communications, first-responder radios and space-based applications, the firm adds.
“The achievement supports our foundry services and helps us accelerate product development,” says James L. Klein, VP & general manager for Infrastructure and Defense Products. “We are delivering more products and services than ever before.”
TriQuint’s TQGaN25 process, qualified to operate up to 40V, has achieved a mean time to failure (MTTF) of more than 10 million hours at 200°C and more than 1 million hours at 225°C. TriQuint says that the reliability milestone was achieved with its newly released Generation II 0.25μm GaN-on-SiC (silicon carbide) process that it uses for GaN product solutions and foundry services.
TriQuint achieved its new GaN performance through in-house development programs. The new reliability also supports the objectives of the firm’s Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III contract for GaN-on-SiC monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), funded by the US Department of Defense Tri-Services laboratories including the US Air Force, Army and Navy. TriQuint says that it is also reducing manufacturing cycle times and increasing yields while making other GaN enhancements that work hand-in-hand with DPA Title III goals.
All manufacturing enhancement are designed to support greater affordability of next-generation AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars, new EW (electronic warfare) systems and commercial applications. Defense systems currently in technology development phases have production planned for 2016-2020.
