Kyma Technologies Signs Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with United States Naval Research Laboratory

Kyma Technologies, Inc. has signed a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to pursue advances in high-speed high-power electronics based on gallium nitride (GaN) field effect transistor technology.

 

The CRADA will investigate the potential for low defect density native GaN substrates to enable improvements in the performance and reliability of high power radio-frequency (RF) transistors based both on conventional GaN field effect transistor (FET) designs and on novel FET designs. The CRADA will benefit from recently announced improvements in Kyma's semi-insulating (SI) GaN product line.

The NRL program managers for the CRADA are Dr. Steve Binari and Dr. David Storm, while Kyma's co-founder Dr. Drew Hanser is the technical lead for Kyma Technologies.

NRL's Dr. Binari presented results of the Kyma-NRL collaboration including X-band GaN FET results at the recent Workshop on Compound Semiconductor Materials and Devices (WOCSEMMAD) held earlier this year in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"We are very excited about formalizing our collaborative R&D efforts with NRL," said Dr. Hanser. "Our existing collaboration with NRL has produced encouraging early materials and device results, showing excellent epitaxial growth and very good device performance up into the X-band. We look forward to working closely with the NRL team to develop FETs that have both the performance and the reliability required for use in advanced military systems."

Kyma's president and CEO Keith Evans added, "We are thankful for the interest of NRL and this great opportunity to try to make a difference in an important new device technology."

GaN FETs have the potential to provide key benefits to future military systems and eventually to the commercial wireless sector. Most GaN FETs under development today utilize non-native substrates such as silicon carbide (SiC), benefiting from the greater availability of such substrates. However, reliance on non-native substrates presents great challenges in terms of device layer quality which may limit FET performance and reliability. Native substrates, once available, should help overcome such challenges.

About Kyma Technologies

Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kyma Technologies, Inc. was co-founded in 1998 by researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Kyma supplies high quality bulk GaN-based substrates and epiwafers to device manufacturers in both electronic and optical markets, and its mission is to become the preferred supplier of native nitride substrate based materials and device solutions. Kyma has developed a strong IP portfolio including exclusively licensed NCSU patents and its own patented and patent-pending technologies.

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.

About the Naval Research Laboratory

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the Navy and Marine Corps and conducts a broad program of scientific research, technology and advanced development. NRL has served the Navy and the nation for nearly 80 years and continues to meet the complex technological challenges of today's world.

For more information about NRL, visit http://www.nrl.navy.mil or call the Naval Research Laboratory Public Affairs Office at 202-767-2541.