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Anyone who has ever worked for a UK claustrophobically, think fenced in. Could Ministry of Defence supplier becomes quick- this difference in attitude, which has seen ly aware of the anomaly in spelling the US the very real growth of the US compound Department of Defense. In compound termi- materials and devices industry, urged on by nology, for the US, think ‘defenestration’ and a demanding DARPA, be about to undergo a Gail Purvis ‘window for opportunity’. For the UK, more similar revolution in the UK? Competition and challenge markets for III-Vs?

In December 2005, the UK MOD issued ure systems will be available from sources “The next generation of power devices, itsDefence Industrial Strategy.[1] focused on civil markets, there is a need for critical for future EW and RF systems is Response to this varied. Some called the the UK to ensure continued access to some likely to be fabricated from the mate- report that ‘conceded vast tranches of critical advanced components and circuits. rial Gallium Nitride (GaN). The UK has national defence capacity to offshore The most important of these are solid- a limited research programme on GaN interests’ as a ‘sell out’. Others, like the state RF transmit/receive modules based technology that is part of a multinational SABC (UK’s national trade association rep- on advanced semiconducting materials. It European research programme - the resenting companies supplying civil air is essential that the UK maintain on-shore Korrigan consortium (Figures 1, 2, and transport, aerospace defence, homeland access to these technologies. box). However, these activities will not security, and space, British Airports Group in themselves ensure future access to “The current generation of high power and the Industrial Space Committee) GaN component technology. MOD will microwave devices are based on Gallium called it ‘a key achievement of 2005’. work with defence manufacturers and Arsenide (GaAs) and in the UK, Filtronic European Procurement Agencies to iden- The follow-on, this October, has been the is the only major provider of GaAs tech- tify what UK investment is required to Defence Technology Strategy.[2] Relevance nology on a foundry basis. While this pro- ensure that UK companies will be able to to the compound industry is stressed in the vides an excellent capability for defence access GaN technology within Europe. section on electronic materials and devices. in the UK, the existence of the foundry “While many of the components and cir- depends on the existence of large civil “The development of GaN can be con- cuits needed for sensor and countermeas- markets for its products. sidered as part of an ongoing systematic development of wide band-gap materials, Figure 1: European supple chain including diamond… likely to lead to a for GaN HEMT process.[4] range of new components. The most dra- Delivery matic impact will probably result from the

Final introduction of lighting by white LEDs, product with major savings from increased efficien- CTH, ISOM, CIDA, PTO Assembly cy and greater reliability. This application U.Roma TV, CNR IFN test System houses will be driven hard by civil investment. Die ELT, AMS, Thales, bank ISOM Indra, EMW, SAAB, BAE “The ability to package electronics Process correctly, particularly for high power TNO Epitaxy GaN HEMT foundaries applications, is also very important and AMS, UMS (<-Tiger), QinetiQ current technology cannot meet the full Substrates requirements of defence. Relevant areas GaN epi-wafers NORSTEL U.Padova TNO, IRCOM Picogiga, QinetiQ ISOM, CIDA CTH are: high power electronics packaging; high-temperature, high speed, and high LiU, Tiger, ULE density packaging; high frequency pack- aging for SiGe, GaN, SiC, and diamond

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devices; free space and guided wave opti- MOD has also launched a DARPA-style epitaxy was to have less than ±1% varia- cal packaging; and microwave photonics ‘Grand Challenge’ competition to boost tion in thickness, composition and dop- and optical processing technologies. defence innovation and research as part ing over the entire area of the 100 mm of the new Defence Technology Strategy. or larger substrates. Cree, Emcore and “This very wide range of technologies Crystal IS are only a few of the small play- makes a comprehensive defence-specific TheGrand Challenge “focuses on the ers whom DARPA called into existence. programme on electronics packaging unaf- urban environment,” says Lord Drayson. fordable. MOD will seek to target its invest- “We have set the challenge pretty Now the wide band-gap devices are emerg- ment against specific high value applica- broadly as we are looking for radical ing, as with Cree’s new high-power GaN tions, exploiting as far as possible technol- approaches to detect, identify, and moni- HEMTs, for broadband applications. The ogy advances arising from civil investment.” tor complex urban situations.” 10-watt and 45-watt devices operate at up to 4 GHz with 14 dB of associated power In October's, Maximising benefit from He adds, “I am well aware how difficult gain and 65% drain efficiency when operat- Defence research,[3]it is noted that “MOD it is for smaller companies and research ed at 28 V. Applications include general-pur- spending on research has fallen by 30% laboratories to get large organisations inter- pose broadband amplifiers used by police, since 1994-95 … significantly more than ested in their ideas. Through the Grand fire departments and Homeland Security the 4.5% decline in the Defence budget Challenge and the Competition of Ideas, critical communications systems. over the same period,” though its upbeat I believe we will make it much easier for conclusion by the Chief Scientific Adviser, them to approach the MOD.” Drayson is A broadband product line of RF GaN-on- Professor Sir Roy Anderson states that reportedly fighting for an increase in the Si HEMT power transistors (due in late “based on the process of external peer current £2.6bn funding budget. November from Nitronex) are suited for review, [is that] our commissioning of applications requiring high power and research to meet our needs is well founded.” DARPA ‘needs’ approach broad bandwidth, such as public safety But has the MOD gone far enough to get radio networks, medical instrumentation, Opening for ideas its message through to SMEs, companies and military systems. Still, to widen its catchment of ideas, in or potential groups that are not among the While RF Micro Devices, which has con- October, the MOD launched its ‘seed select traditional players?[2] In the US, DARPA verted part of its 4” GaAs wafer fab into a funding’ £10m ‘Competition of Ideas’ strategy has always been to spell out its tar- line for GaN device production on 3” SiC initiative, developed by the Research gets in no uncertain terms. Back in 2001, its wafers, has released GaN-on-SiC products Acquisition Organisation to stimulate wide band-gap semiconductor technology for WiMAX, cellular infrastructure, and scientific, innovative, and technological initiative had a phase one budget of nearly public mobile radio applications. capabilities of academia and industry; $40m (75% going to industry, the remainder If MOD does lay out such DARPA-style and to support the implementation to universities and federal laboratories.) definitions of need, they do not appear in phase of the Defence Technology DARPA’s John Zolper and Edgar Martinez the public domain. At present, the success Strategy. It was launched in October’s were very clear on what they wanted. in wide band-gap material in Europe goes Defence Contract Bulletin, (the closing SiC substrates greater than 100 mm diam- to the HYPHEN (Hybrid Substrates for date is the end of January 2007). eter, with high resistivity (>107 Ωcm), a Competitive High Frequency Electronics) It is pointed out that with an annual thermal conductivity of at least 4 W/cmK, programme for growing GaN on bulk sili- spend of some £2.6bn, the MOD is a very with less than 10 micropipes/cm2. For con and GaN on bulk SiC – (GaN grown large investor in R&D (no mention of any SiC and/or III-nitrides homo- and hetero- on two composite engineered substrates: decline in spending). ‘Ideas with promise’

can receive as much as £300,000 fund- Figure 2: GaN HEMT technology ing. Typically, MOD is looking to place development roadmap.[4] contracts after June of between £50- £300k within a 12 month period.

Successful ideas must demonstrate a set of objectives. Namely, defence relevance and the importance of the need/problem being addressed, alignment of proposed solutions to the identified need or prob- lem, novelty/uniqueness of the proposed solution, technical feasibility, and exploi- tation of potential. The ideas submitted to the Competitionwill be assessed by MOD staff and independent experts.

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silicon on polycrystalline silicon carbide of Small Business Innovation Research If the MOD moves fast, and becomes flex- (SopSiC) and SiC on polycrystalline SiC (SBIR) funding. Its payoff can be seen in ible, it could prove a sure-fire market for (SiCopSiC), engineered using Soitec’s the 24 small, advanced technology busi- compound materials and device develop- Smart Cut SOI technology. nesses that recently met directly with ers. But can it adopt a DARPA stance suc- Lockheed Martin engineers to share inno- cessfully? It all makes Strategy Analytics’ Picogiga International (the III-Vs division vations and capabilities that may benefit future report on Compound components of Soitec) reports results showing crystal warfighters. Companies participating in & the Defence market well worth the wait. quality, mobility, surface morphology and the Lockheed Martin and Small Business other critical performance standards of Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Innovation Technology Day work on GaN on composite substrate materials Defense department-funded programs being equal to, or better than, the current References to develop next-generation technologies industry standard materials. 1. Defence Industrial Strategy: under the SBIR program. www.dti.gov.uk/files/file33168.pdf UK response? Orlando Carvalho, VP and GM of Lockheed A MOD spokesman says that around 500 Martin’s business in Moorestown says, “With 2. Defence Technology Strategy: web downloads of the ‘ideas’ entry forms the open architecture systems we are devel- www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/27787990- gives some idea to the interest in the oping, we can rapidly integrate new tech- 42BD-4883-95C0-B48BB72BC982/0/dts_ Competition of Ideas, though, as the dead- nologies affordably, providing our custom- complete.pdf line is at the end of January, there is some ers - those in uniform, in harm’s way - with 3. Maximising benefit from Defence time to go. The Grand Challenge is to be systems that remain ahead of the threat.” Research: fully launched by the end of November Participating companies cover a wide www.emrsdtc.com/downloads/pdf/ and is aimed, as in the DARPA challenge, spectrum of high technology needs, robot- proposals_07/maximising_benefit_from_ towards teams of players from SMEs, big ics technology- human-machine interac- defence_research_unc.pdf corporations and universities. Regional tions, computational intelligence, network Competition of briefings on both the modelling and simulations, next-generation 4. Gauthier., G., and Reptin, F., Ideas Grand Challenge and the are to digital signal processing, logistics technolo- KORRIGAN: Development of GaN HEMT travel the UK over the next few months. gies, field-programmable gate arrays, CNTs Technology in Europe. Presented at CS But there might be other ideas worth for next-gen devices, memories, and high- Mantech Conference, Vancouver, BC, purloining from the US. One is the use performance embedded computing. Canada (2006) 49

The KORRIGAN consortium The KORRIGAN consortium consists of 29 partners, including 19 industrial companies and research laboratories, and 10 universities:

THALES AIRBORNE SYSTEMS, France THALES NAVAL NEDERLAND, The Netherlands THALES RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, France TNO, The Netherlands THALES AIR DEFENCE, France ERICSSON MICROWAVE SYSTEMS AB, Sweden CNRS, France CHALMERS UNIVERSITY, Sweden IEMN, France LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY, Sweden PICOGIGA International, France NORSTEL, Sweden XLIM, France SAABTECH, Sweden SELEX SISTEMI INTEGRATI, Italy INDRA, Spain ELETTRONICA, Italy CIDA, Spain CNR IFN, Italy UNIV. POLITECNICA MADRID-ISOM, Spain INFM-NNL LECCE, Italy SELEX SENSORS & AIRBORNE SYSTEMS, UK UNIVERSITY OF ROMA - TOR VERGATA, Italy BAE SYSTEMS INSYTE, UK POLITECNICO DI TORINO, Italy THALES DEFENCE LIMITED, UK UNIVERSITY OF PADOVA, Italy QINETIQ, UK UMS, Germany

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