HRL makes available GaN fabrication services
HRL Laboratories is offering a device prototyping service for GaN-based integrated circuits.
The Malibu, CA, research laboratory, which was created by legendary aviator Howard Hughes, will provide "selected customers" with design, fabrication and test services for microwave and millimeter-wave ICs and modules.
HRL has also produced a design kit and says that it will provide fabrication services for custom designs.
The frequency range covered by the service extends from ultra-high frequencies through to the so-called "Q-band".
HRL says that it has also developed a process for GaN HFET manufacturing on 100 mm substrates. Its MMICs are currently made on 3-inch wafers.
According to the company, HFETs made on the larger wafers have been demonstrated. The 100 mm substrates allow a 70% increase in fabricated devices per wafer.
Last year, HRL said that it had made a 20 W X-band module based on GaN, as well as a wideband low-noise amplifier and a power MMIC operating in the Ka-band for satellite communications (see related story).
However, the laboratory, which operates as a research facility for Boeing, General Motors and Raytheon, failed to win any of the recent GaN development contracts that were handed out by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
