HRL Laboratories to Offer New GaN MMIC Foundry Service for Custom Integrated Circuits

Epitaxial growth and thermal processing are integral to HRL Laboratories’ T3 GaN foundry services. © 2018 HRL Laboratories.

Custom Integrated Circuits for Specific Applications Can be Designed and Fabricated at Much Lower Cost

HRL Laboratories, LLC, announces a new shared foundry service, offering advanced millimeter-wave (mmW) gallium nitride (GaN) technology for fabrication of monolithic microwa ve integrated circuits (MMICs) through multi-project wafer (MPW) runs. “Eligible customers will be able to design into our world-class, state-of-the-art mmW T3-GaN fabrication process and receive custom, tailored circuits for their specific applications at a price much lower than a dedicated foundry run,” said Shawn Burnham, the HRL scientist in charge of the GaN foundry service.  “They will be given access to a process design kit, which has already been used to demonstrate world-record power amplifier and low-noise amplifier performance.”

HRL T3-GaN is a leading-edge mmW high-electron-mobility transistor technology for applications such as next-generation high-data-rate wireless communications and high-resolution radar imaging. HRL processes GaN wafers in a 10,000-square-foot ISO Class 4 cleanroom, and is a US Department of Defense Trusted Foundry. HRL will begin an open subscription period soon for customers with verified US government end-use of the foundry product. Interested customers seeking information on pricing or scheduling can write to GaNFoundry@hrl.com.

For customers that do not want to perform custom MMIC designs themselves, HRL also continues to offer related T3-GaN MMIC design services to US Government customers, which could then be used on MPW runs. HRL has over 25 years of experience designing MMICs from UHF to mmW, including low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, mixers, switches, attenuators, and phase shifters, and the expertise to package the fabricated MMICs.

HRL Laboratories, LLC, Malibu, California (hrl.com) is a corporate research-and-development laboratory owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors specializing in research into sensors and materials, information and systems sciences, applied electromagnetics, and microelectronics. HRL provides custom research and development and performs additional R&D contract services for its LLC member companies, the U.S. government, and other commercial companies.

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