Military applications for heterostructure microelectronics technology

Abstract

Military systems, whether radar, communications, electronic warfare (EW) or smart munitions, require superior device and IC performance. The performance advantages of heterostructure devices over standard Si CMOS, Si bipolar transistors or GaAs MESFETs has motivated major aerospace firms in the United States to develop Si, GaAs and InP-based heterojunction bipolar (HBT) and high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technologies. In response to advanced system performance requirements, technology efforts are being pushed toward devices which can yield T R modules with octave bandwidths, noise figures under 3 dB, output power of 20 W and power greater than 30%. Device technology development for satellite communications is being driven in part by the need for ultra low noise high output power with high power added efficiency with high MMTF. For these systems as well as EW applications, designers want to digitize the signal as close to the front end as possible. This is driving the development of a 100 GHz IC technology for A/D converters, synthesizers, MUX/DEMUXs, DDSs. and PRNs. Requirements for A/D converters with 16 bits @ 100–200 MHz up to 8–10 bits @ 10 GHz are appearing for advanced radars and EW systems. The military system requirements continue to drive the development of the newer, better and higher performance heterostructure device technologies.