CalTech licenses InP MMIC technology to HRL
HRL Laboratories has licensed 15 millimeter-wave MMICs designs that were initially developed by engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.
The Malibu-based corporate research and development laboratory, which is backed by the giant US corporations Boeing, General Motors and Raytheon, says that it has MMIC designs ranging from Ka-band (26.5-40 GHz) to the D-band (110-170 GHz) that are available to customers for component prototyping.
Licensed from the California Institute of Technology, the millimeter-wave devices include three power amplifier (PA) designs covering the 70-170 GHz range.
Other MMICs licensed by HRL include three low-noise amplifiers that cover much of the 25-205 GHz frequencies, and three wideband amplifiers including one that provides more than 30 dB gain at 70-110 GHz.
HRL has been offering InP-based HEMTs and MMIC design services since 1998, and has a variety of processes available on its 3 inch fabrication line. Transistors with gate lengths of just 80 nm can be manufactured at the laboratory.
Millimeter-wave MMICs are currently being developed by a number of other companies, and will be one focus of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) work on GaN microelectronics (see related story).
Although initial applications are expected in the military sector, it is hoped that the technology should cross over into commercial applications such as radar components in adaptive cruise control modules for automobiles.
