SBIR/STTR Award attributes
PseudolithIC, Inc. is pleased to offer this proposal to develop and deliver superior Ka-band performance enabled by recent advances in N-polar Gallium Nitride (GaN) in a cost-effective integration platform that readily extends to T/R switch and low noise amplifier (LNA) integration for a complete millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) radio solution. PseudolithIC was founded as the world’s first company committed to the commercialization of heterogeneous semiconductor integration as a new approach to radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). PseudolithIC plans to offer this disruptive technology to the growing RF and millimeter-wave marketplace which is limited today between the scalability but limited performance of RF CMOS processes and the cost but limited integration of compound semiconductors such as Gallium Nitride (GaN). The PseudolithIC approach is ideally suited to rapidly demonstrating the performance advantages of a new device technology such as N-polar GaN and then quickly scaling that technology to manufacturing readiness. Our proposal will demonstrate how an emergent merchant foundry developing an N-polar GaN HEMT process with capability to operate in millimeter-wave bands in combination with commercial Ga-polar GaN technology can be scaled to silicon manufacturing levels and deliver outstanding LNA and RF switch performance. PseudolithIC will characterize linear and noise models for the N-polar process and rapidly transition these devices into a millimeter-wave product through heterogeneous integration with silicon.
