Kyma Technologies, Inc. (Kyma) has been awarded up to $3.3M under a new multi-year contract by the Department of Defense, with funding support from both the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Under the new contract, Kyma is focusing its efforts on advancing GaN-based high-power high-frequency (HPHF) electronic device technology by employing Kyma's low defect density native GaN substrate materials. Native GaN has the potential to enhance the performance and reliability of a variety of radar, electronic warfare, communications and optoelectronic systems essential to the Department of Defense.
Mr. John Blevins of AFRL's Materials Directorate is the technical monitor, while Dr. Drew Hanser, Kyma's CTO and VP Business Development, is the principal investigator. The new contract strongly leverages the achievements and plans of Kyma's recently announced cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) with AFRL and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and several MDA SBIR/STTR awards that Kyma has recently won.
"While today's HPHF GaN device technology has reached impressive performance levels, reliability issues remain which we believe are tied to the current reliance on foreign substrates. Kyma's native GaN has the potential to solve these problems by enabling a higher quality device active region. Our overall approach is to use the best materials possible, prove out the device benefits, while working in parallel to make these materials more readily available," said Hanser.
Dr. Keith Evans, Kyma's president and CEO, added, "This program represents an important contribution to our mission to provide our customers with a range of best-in-class III-nitride products. We are thankful for the vision and the support of our DoD colleagues and are dedicated to making this a successful effort."
About Native Gallium Nitride
"Native gallium nitride (GaN) substrates" refers to single crystal GaN substrates that are sliced from crystalline boules of GaN. The growth of large diameter crystalline GaN boules has proven difficult due to challenging crystal growth chemistries. However, the potential of native GaN substrates to enable over $30B in commercial device applications and to provide US DoD with early technology advantages has led to growing investment in native GaN substrate development.
About Kyma Technologies
Kyma Technologies, Inc. (Kyma) was spun out of North Carolina State University in 1998 to pursue the development of gallium nitride (GaN) substrate materials for a broad range of high-performance nitride semiconductor device applications. Most current nitride semiconductor devices are fabricated from foreign substrates such as sapphire and silicon carbide, and GaN substrates have the potential to enable important improvements in device performance, reliability, and cost.
For more information about Kyma Technologies, please visit our website www.kymatech.com, send us e-mail at info@kymatech.com, or call the company directly at 919.789.8880.
Kyma is a registered trademark of Kyma Technologies, Inc.