A Revolution on the Horizon from DARPA: Heterogeneous Integration for Revolutionary Microwave\/Millimeter-Wave Circuits at DARPA: Progress and Future Directions

TLDR

DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office is developing revolutionary materials, devices, and integration techniques to meet performance requirements for advanced microwave and millimeter‑wave systems, while also pushing limits in silicon technology and gallium nitride device technology. These programs aim to address critical challenges for next‑generation microwave and millimeter‑wave systems and seek to revolutionize DoD capabilities. The COSMOS program develops methods to tightly integrate compound semiconductor technologies within state‑of‑the‑art silicon CMOS circuits, and the DAHI program advances heterogeneous integration processes to combine advanced compound semiconductor devices and other emerging materials with high‑density silicon CMOS technology.

Abstract

The Microsystems Technology Office of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing revolutionary materials, devices, and integration techniques to meet the performance requirements for advanced microwave and millimeter-wave (mmW) systems. The DARPA Compound Semiconductor Materials on Silicon (COSMOS) program focused on developing new methods to tightly integrate compound semiconductor (CS) technologies within state-of-the-art silicon (Si) complementary?metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits to achieve unprecedented circuit performance levels. The DARPA Diverse Accessible Heterogeneous Integration (DAHI) program is continuing that work by developing heterogeneous integration processes to intimately combine advanced CS devices, as well as other emerging materials and devices, with high-density Si CMOS technology. DARPA has also pushed limits in Si technology and driven seminal developments in gallium nitride (GaN) device technology. Taken together, these programs are addressing many critical challenges for next-generation microwave and mmW systems and seek to revolutionize U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) capabilities in these areas.