MACOM Technology Solutions Inc. (“MACOM”), a supplier of semiconductor products, today announced that it has been selected to lead a development project to establish advanced gallium nitride (“GaN”) on silicon carbide (SiC) process technologies for radio frequency (“RF”) and microwave applications. Funded by the CHIPS and Science Act (“CHIPS”) through the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the project will focus on developing semiconductor manufacturing processes for GaN-based materials and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (“MMICs”) operating efficiently at high voltage and at millimeter-wave (“mmW”) frequencies.
MACOM is a member of the Commercial Leap-Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Microelectronics Commons Hub and will work with North Carolina State University, Adroit Materials and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) on this project. The year 1 value of this award is $3.4 million.
This award expands upon a series of GaN technology development activities with the DoD, including a 2021 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the United State Air Force Research Laboratory (“AFRL”) where MACOM successfully transferred AFRL’s 0.14 micron GaN-on-SiC MMIC process to its Massachusetts-based U.S. Trusted Foundry. This was followed in 2023 by a $4 million AFRL contract to develop GaN technologies for mmW applications and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) award valued at up to $10.1 million aimed at improved heat dissipation for high power applications. Earlier this year, MACOM was awarded a separate CHIPS-funded GaN technology development contract worth up to $11.4 million.
“Our strategy is to increase domestic production of state-of-the-art RF and microwave power technologies to support our military’s RADAR and sensing applications and to enable next generation telecommunications networks,” said Stephen G. Daly, MACOM President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe the technologies and products developed under these contracts will help keep the United States and MACOM on the leading edge.”
