Raytheon Co.’s Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) has been awarded a three-year, $26.9 M Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract with a potential award value of $59.4 M if all program options are exercised. The program will optimize and refine the use of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors for use in military and civilian systems. Raytheon is the prime contractor, having teamed with Cree Inc., headquartered in Durham, NC, on this leading edge technology. “Teaming with Cree is all about speed — combining the capabilities of the scientists at both companies will make this technology available to the war fighter much sooner,” said Joe Smolko, Raytheon program manager for the wide band gap semiconductor for radio frequency (WBGS-RF) application program. GaN is capable of providing 10 times the output power of similarly sized gallium arsenide (GaAs) components. It enables system solutions that are smaller, lighter, more efficient and more cost effective than can be realized with current technology, and is the enabling building block for Raytheon’s high power and wide band strategy. “The Raytheon – Cree team has the systems knowledge, technical leadership, and semiconductor infrastructure to assure program success and transition into systems,” said Mark Russell, IDS’ vice president of engineering. The Raytheon portion of the work will be conducted at Raytheon’s RF Components in Andover, MA, while Cree’s portion of the work will be conducted in Durham, NC, and its Santa Barbara Technology Center in California.