Cobham, RFHIC to Develop New Gallium Nitride (GaN) Solid State Radar

Cobham and RFHIC Corporation (RFHIC) of Korea have established a strategic partnership to incorporate RFHIC’s Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology into Cobham’s next-generation RF products.  Cobham and RFHIC will jointly develop GaN High Power Amplifier (HPA) modules that will be integrated into a prototype 175 KiloWatt (KW) solid state transmitter. Development activities under this Memorandum of Agreement will be executed by Cobham Integrated Electronics Solutions, a business unit of CAES at its Exeter, New Hampshire. site.

“GaN-based Solid State Transmitter technology is affordable, reliable, and scalable, and has a number of advantages over traditional Vacuum Electronic Devices (VED) used in current transmitter designs,” said Bob McArthur, Business Area Vice President for Cobham Integrated Electronic Solutions.  “Benefits include a significant increase in Mean Time Between Critical Failure (MTBCF), substantial decreases in operational and sustainment costs, and graceful degradation in the event of hardware failure, as opposed to single point of failure or instantaneous shutdown.”

“Cobham is revolutionizing radar, communication, and EW markets with its proprietary solid state transmitter, using RFHIC's GaN amplifier technology,” said Dr. Samuel Cho, Founder and Chairman of RFHIC Corporation. “We are excited to be involved in such an innovative partnership, and look forward to seeing the Cobham-RFHIC team become the front runner in the solid state transmitter market in the foreseeable future.”

Cobham has successfully developed a 35KW prototype S-Band Solid State Transmitter for air traffic control and weather radar applications.  RFHIC has a comprehensive product portfolio from discrete components to integrated high power amplifiers. The combined expertise of Cobham and RFHIC will enable further exploration of domestic and international civil and military radar applications for GaN-based solid state technologies.  Additionally, the partnership between Cobham and RFHIC may help provide offset obligations between Korean Military and US Navy contracts.