Semiconductor team awarded $26.9 million

A team led by

, acting as prime contractor, and

, as subcontractor, has won a program award from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (

) under its Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Technology Initiative.

The three-year, $26.9 million Cree-Raytheon program has a potential value of $59.4 million if all program options are exercised. Around $11 million will be subcontracted to Cree during the three-year program, and $24.5 million in total if all options are exercised.

The team will be developing next generation gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors for military and commercial products, targeting the insertion of GaN into military and commercial programs starting in 2006.

According to Raytheon, GaN is capable of providing 10 times the output power of similarly sized Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) components. It enables systems solutions that are smaller, lighter, more efficient and more cost effective than can be realised with current technology.

The semiconductor work for this program will be conducted at Raytheon RF components in

,

and in the Wide Bandgap MMIC foundry of Cree in

,

, as well as in Cree's

in

.