Northrop Grumman Wins Terahertz Contract
Source/Type: Reported News

Author: CompoundSemi News Staff

May 20, 2009... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation Phase I of a $37-million Terahertz (THz) Electronics contract, company officials announced. Work on the contract will support military and space satellites with the development of active receivers and transmitters operating at 670 gigahertz that ensure reliable, high-resolution images, and other applications.

The THz Electronics program is an extension of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems' successful $7.7-million Phase I of development on the Sub-millimeter Wave Imaging Focal Plane Technology (SWIFT) program for DARPA that demonstrated components such as oscillators and amplifiers (low-noise and power) operating at 340 GHz for high-resolution imaging at sub-millimeter frequencies in all types of weather environments encountered by space and defense satellites. The THz Electronics program, which will continue to be supported by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, will start at 650 GHz this year. It is not coincidental that DARPA picked Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems recently captured a Guinness World Record for the fastest transistor which oscillates at well over 1000 GHz (1 THz). Dr. Mark Rosker, program manager of DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office noted that the higher frequency components will enable emerging applications like terahertz communications and radars. He added, "But of potentially even greater consequence, this program will drive the state of the art in high performance III-V electronics, with vast implication to RF circuits and systems operating at more conventional (microwave and millimeter-wave) frequencies." Company News Release

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