Not long ago, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) announced that it will grant $31.9 million to the California Defense Electronics and Microdevices Super Center (CA DREAMS), led by the University of Southern California (USC), to accelerate the development of advanced semiconductor technologies. The main objective is to accelerate the development of advanced semiconductor technologies, particularly gallium nitride technology and 5G/6G mmWave phased array prototypes. The funded project is part of the Department of Defense's Microelectronics Commons program, which aims to enhance domestic microelectronics hardware prototyping capabilities, facilitate the transformation of semiconductor technology from the lab to the factory, and expand semiconductor workforce training.
In addition, this investment will help improve the security and reliability of the supply chain and reduce the dependence on foreign microelectronics supply chains. The project also includes education and workforce development to ensure that there is enough talent to support investments in these technologies and to maintain the country's semiconductor engineering talent pool.
Through these efforts, the Department of Defense hopes to advance economic and technological development, promote economic growth in various regions, and strengthen national security to ensure that the United States military has access to the most advanced microelectronics. These investments are part of CHIPS and Science Act funding to ensure United States' leadership in microelectronics. The funds will be used for two different projects.
Pictured: USC-led CA DREAMS Center receives $31.9 million in funding from the Department of Defense (Photo: Semiconductor Today)
The first project received a $16.2 million grant focused on proven advanced gallium nitride (GaN) technology to enable wide-spectrum, high-power, and high-efficiency solutions for future DoD electronic warfare (EW) systems. The second project, which received a $15.7 million grant, aims to accelerate the development of 5G/6G mmWave phased array prototypes to drive the usability of high-performance front-ends, including phased array antennas, beamforming integrated circuits (ICs), and wideband amplifiers that use state-of-the-art (SOTA) advanced (2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration [HI]) packaging technologies to enable leading-edge size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) systems.
CA DREAMS is one of eight regional innovation centers established under the Department of Defense's Microelectronics (ME) Commons program, funded by the Chips and Science Act of 2022 to develop domestic microelectronics hardware prototyping, the transformation of semiconductor technology from the lab to the factory, and expanded semiconductor workforce training. It includes 16 founding partners, covering the higher education and semiconductor industries. USC's MOSIS 2.0 services, as part of CA DREAMS, are accelerating prototyping in the lab and factory and streamlining the transition from lab to factory.
The project team, consisting of USC, Northrop Grumman, HRL Labs, Teledyne, Caltech, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, Vorago, Global Foundries, and others, aims to develop prototypes 12 months or more ahead of traditional schedules.
This work will enable antenna arrays to operate at higher frequencies for broadband communications applications, providing improved connectivity for DoD and commercial applications.
