Radiation Hard Monolithically Integrated InGaAs-GaN MMICs

ABSTRACT:The Air Force recognizes the need to monolithically integrate microelectronic devices constructed with dissimilar semiconductor materials on the same substrates, thus significantly reducing parts count and with the goal to develop a space qualifiable compound MMIC that can lead to construction of low noise/high speed circuits based on InGaAs HEMT technology monolithically integrated with power amplifiers based on GaN HEMT technology on the same substrates. To date there is no optimized transistor materials technology with both high power RF and low noise operation. In response to this need QuantTera proposes to develop an exciting new class of InP-GaN based monolithically integrated heterojunction materials, which form the basis for an ultra-high performance transistor materials technology for monolithically integrated MMICs. BENEFIT:There are several major markets where high performance integrate InGaAs-GaN HEMTs can make an immediate impact: (1) RF amplifiers for commercial telecommunications, (2) radar and directed communications for the military. Of these two primary markets that InGaAs-GaN HEMTs can target, this project impacts most directly the first of these, which is also the one that offers the largest potential commercial impact due to the extremely large potential volumes involved.