Leveraging a design team and internal wafer fabrication facility with nearly two years of R&D, at this week's IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2010) in Anaheim, CA (25-27 May) high-power pulsed RF transistor maker Integra Technologies Inc (ITI) of El Segundo, CA, USA is launching two new products (available for sampling now) using what it claims is the first high-voltage gallium nitride on silicon HEMT process with drain-source breakdowns exceeding 200V.

The high breakdown voltage enables the devices to operate at higher voltages than seen on the market currently, translating into higher performance.

Privately owned Integra was founded in 1997 based on record S-band pulsed performance using patented high-frequency bipolar transistor technology (which is still in production). With nearly 100 staff, the firm supplies high-power pulsed transistors to the aviation industry, with a portfolio covering radar bands in the UHF/VHF, L-, S- and C-bands for commercial, military and defense markets. Integra uses technologies including VDMOS, LDMOS, bipolar and now GaN-on-Si, all produced in its all-gold 6-inch wafer fab (patented technology starts with an all-gold metallization process for all elements of the die fabrication process to ensure high reliability). The firm offers both discrete devices and integrated pallets for the S-band radar market.

Integra says that it has developed GaN technology as a direct result of customer requests for smaller, more efficient power devices with broadband performance.

The new technology allows the firm to penetrate new markets involving CW applications such as electronic warfare (EW) for the defense industry, says founder & president John Titizian. "We have years of RF expertise manufacturing high-power semiconductors and, with our low overhead cost structure, we will continue to dominate in both price and performance,"  he reckons.

Operating over the instantaneous bandwidth covering 2.7-3.1GHz in the S-band, under 300µs pulse width and 10% duty cycle pulsing conditions the PN IGN2731M25 and PN IGN2731M50 devices typically supply a minimum of 25W and 50W of peak output power, respectively. With breakdown voltage approaching 200V the devices are characterized at 50V operating voltage, providing 50% efficiency and more than 13dB and 12dB of gain, respectively. The single-ended devices are housed in a ceramic flanged package, providing thermal advantages.