TriQuint is first to achieve DoD manufacturing level 9 for RF GaN
TriQuint Semiconductor has announced that it is the first GaN RF chip manufacturer to achieve the US Department of Defense's Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) 9.
The DoD's Manufacturing Readiness Assessment (MRA) ensures that manufacturing, production and quality assurance can meet operational mission needs. The aim is to provide guidance about the maturity and risk of a given technology. TriQuint demonstrated that its manufacturing processes met full performance, cost and capacity goals, with the capability in place to support full rate production.
To benchmark MRL 9, TriQuint applied the US Air Force Research Laboratory's rigorous manufacturing readiness assessment tool and criteria to its high frequency, high power GaN production line. TriQuint's ongoing development of GaN-based devices is leading to smaller, more efficient power amplifiers, typically used for military radar and electronic warfare programs as well as commercial wireless communications and infrastructure.
"TriQuint recently completed its Defense Production Act Title III GaN on silicon carbide (SiC) program and now we've proven that we provide the GaN maturity needed to support full-rate production programs," said vice president and general manager James Klein, Infrastructure and Defense Products.
Key to the company's assessment, TriQuint has shipped more than 170,000 0.25µm GaN power amplifier devices in support of an ongoing international radar production program. During phased array radar field testing, approximately 15,000 devices have accumulated more than 3.67 million device hours, with no reported device failures. TriQuint continues to demonstrate industry-leading reliability with a mean time to failure (MTTF) of greater than 70 million hours at 200 degrees Celsius, substantially greater than the industry standard of 1 million hours MTTF.