Neela wrote:brar_w
Possibly the 120W power output of this device has been superseded by more "power"ful ones and hence made available for commercial use.
From my understanding the product has been exportable since late 2014 / early 2015 and is widely used commercially across the world. In fact its current usage/demand is more on the commercial side than the defense sector. There are various things they look at for ITAR and export restrictions. From the top of my head wide band gap, high power, high PAE and frequency matters a lot with the higher frequency systems naturally being protected. Commercial market for GaN components will continue to be many times the defense market even as virtually all defense RF components rapidly transition to GaN.
Note that virtually all new ground based AESA radars in the US are GaN, GaAs ones are or have already been upgraded to GaAs (L Band surveilance radars, X-Band TPY-2, and S-Band G/ATOR) all new Electronic Attack solutions are GaN, and all new data-links and communication nodes are being designed around GaN components but the commercial (Base-stations) side is really dictating the market and the demand will continue to outpace the defense side. The shift here is more remarkable than when they transitioned to GaAs especially in the defense radar, electronic warfare, and communications side.
There are plenty of Export restricted, GaN products on Cree, Triquint/Qorvo's product list and of course the 100% defense focused foundries of Raytheon, Northrop, BaE and others. Outside of the F-35 program only Lockheed with its Open Foundry concept goes to Wolfspeed or Qorvo for its GaN components which until recently have revolved around large surveillance radars operating in the L and S bands.
Possibly the 120W power output of this device has been superseded by more "power"ful ones and hence made available for commercial use.
Yes. Note that the particular GaN HEMT product was first made available in the market in 2008 so it's been around for a while and has obviously be superseded by many more modern products on the military and commercial side.
2013 - 500-W, 1200 – 1400-MHz, GaN HEMT, Drain Eff. 68% Power Gain 16dB
Cree releases two new GaN HEMTs for L-Band radar systems2016 - 800-W, 1200 – 1400-MHz, GaN HEMT, Drain Eff. 65% Power Gain 16dB
Wolfspeed releases highest power L-Band radar GaN HEMThttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbSS0AEHWUI