DARPA's GaN technology thrust

DARPA/MTO has sponsored III-N electronics programs to combine associated high intrinsic breakdown voltages, high electron saturation velocities, and large sheet carrier densities. The WBGS-RF program has developed GaN HEMTs for high power RF electronics resulting in sufficiently mature transistors to confidently predict 10E6 hours of MTTF for up to 40GHz power device operation. The latest NEXT program further pushes III-N-based HEMTs toward its frequency (size) scaling limits by simultaneously minimizing carrier transit time, maximizing electron density, and reducing access resistances with innovative epitaxial structures and dielectric heterointerfaces. The goals of the Phase I of NEXT project are to demonstrate 300 GHz D-mode and 200 GHz E-mode HEMTs while maintaining the breakdown voltage and transistor cutoff frequency product ≥ 5 THz·Volt. The final goal of the NEXT program is to enable 1000-transistor, high-yield, 500 GHz E/D-mode GaN technology for mixed signal applications.