News

17 January 2007

 

Kyma's native GaN substrates merit defense contract

Gallium nitride (GaN) substrates developer Kyma Technologies Inc of Raleigh, NC, USA has been awarded up to $3.3m under a Department of Defense multi-year contract, with funding from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Under the terms of the contract, Kyma will use its low defect density native GaN substrate materials to develop GaN-based high-power high-frequency (HPHF) electronic device technology. Native GaN has the potential to improve the performance of defense systems such as radar, electronic warfare, communications and optoelectronics, says the company.

Drew Hanser, Kyma’s CTO and VP business development, is the principal investigator, with John Blevins of AFRL’s Materials Directorate as the technical monitor. Kyma is already working on cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) with the AFRL and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and has also won several MDA SBIR/STTR awards.

“While today’s HPHF GaN device technology has reached impressive performance levels, reliability issues remain which we believe are tied to the current reliance on foreign substrates. Kyma’s native GaN has the potential to solve these problems by enabling a higher quality device active region. Our overall approach is to use the best materials possible, prove out the device benefits, while working in parallel to make these materials more readily available,” said Hanser.

Dr Keith Evans, Kyma’s president and CEO, added, “This program represents an important contribution to our mission to provide our customers with a range of best-in-class III-nitride products. We are thankful for the vision and the support of our DoD colleagues and are dedicated to making this a successful effort.”

See related items:

Kyma announces GaN FET R&D agreement with AFRL

Army funds Kyma to develop non-polar GaN substrates

Visit: http://www.kymatech