Competitive dual use MMIC technologies and products

Competitive dual use GaAs MMIC technologies have begun to appear in the market, successfully countering discretes and silicon ICs. The three choices of MESFET, HEMT and HBT requires an optimum selection design task, based on cost. Due to the variety of MMIC functions required and frequency ranges needed, the selection task is complex and results in different application niches for each technology. In the last 10 years and even longer, the successful development of MMIC technology was propelled primarily by the needs of defense and space systems, to achieve considerably smaller size and lower cost of microwave hardware. Therefore, government funding sources were primarily depended upon programs such as the DoD MIMIC Program. It was always anticipated that commercial spin-offs of some significance would occur to create an important international industrial base in telecommunications and other areas. In the last two years, these spin-offs have become more visible. Which MMIC technologies will have dual use for both military and commercial? The answer is complex because various MMIC technologies (silicon, GaAs MESFET/HEMT/HBT) have various cost and performance tradeoffs. One must perform an optimum technology selection in many applications. Yet certain niches are becoming apparent based on frequency, power level and function, as well as volume.<>