Applicability, Availability and Affordability of GaAs MMICs to Military Systems

The principal content of this paper is a discussion of the applications of GaAs MMICs to a variety of military systems, wherein high-rate production of large quantities of chips is expected to be required. Examples of these applications include active-element phased arrays, expendable jammers for electronic warfare and millimeter wave sensors for precision-guided munitions. A review of the current availability of GaAs MMICs for projected military applications is also presented. Finally, a discussion of the critical issue of affordability of GaAs MMICs for military applications is presented, including the cost goals which must be met to ensure economic viability. The issues which impact the costs of MMICs, including yield, foundry throughput and the important trade-off between requirements definition and yield, will be discussed. In the context of affordability, a critical concern which must be addressed is the problem of how to ensure quality control at the chip and module levels without overwhelming the established cost goals.