Cree, Inc. has introduced the world's first commercial gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifiers. Fabricated on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates for excellent thermal dissipation, the models CMPA0060005 and CMPA2560025 are available in chip and packaged formats. Model CMPA0060005 is a distributed amplifier that provides 5 W output power from DC to 6 GHz while model CMPA2560025 is a reactively matched MMIC amplifier with 25 W output power from 2.5 to 6.0 GHz.
According to Jim Milligan, director of RF and Microwave Products at Cree, "The introduction of the industry's first off-the-shelf 'catalog' GaN MMICs continues to set Cree apart as the industry's leader in wide bandgap MMIC technology. These products can provide our customers with the performance improvement and size reduction benefits of microwave circuit integration in convenient 'drop-in' 50-Ohm amplifiers."
Dr. John Palmour, executive vice-president for Advanced Devices at Cree, added: "This MMIC milestone is the culmination of many years of internal investment and external support from the US Department of Defense, the Title III Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). We are extremely pleased to see the results of these efforts beginning to pay off for both the military and commercial markets." Both new GaN MMIC amplifiers will be demonstrated at the Cree booth (No. 1243) at the 2008 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium in Atlanta, GA, June 15-20, 2008.
In addition to the GaN MMIC amplifiers, the company also announced the expansion of its standard full-wafer (SFW) MMIC foundry service to include shared multi-project (SMP) foundry runs on a quarterly basis. This SMP service is available for both SiC MESFET and GaN HEMT MMIC processes.