Shortens MMIC Design Cycles

Cree, Inc. announces the availability of a leading edge process design kit (PDK) for GaN HEMT process technology. The Cree PDK, developed for use with Advanced Design System (ADS) from Agilent Technologies, Inc., can enable radio-frequency (RF) and microwave designers to shorten the development cycle for monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) used in high-power, high-performance electronic systems, resulting in a highly productive design flow.

The Cree GaN kit includes microstrip lines, discontinuities, scalable capacitors, inductors and resistors, pads, vias, airbridges and active devices (HEMTs) at multiple biases.

Cree's GaN foundry is the world's first state-of-the-art wide bandgap MMIC facility and our GaN-on-silicon carbide devices have significantly higher power density, thermal conductivity and operating voltage than traditional GaAs or Silicon MMIC technologies. RF designers can take advantage of this PDK to create MMICs for high-power commercial wireless, wideband military, electronic warfare and radar applications.

"We are pleased to offer access to our GaN MMIC foundry capability through the Advanced Design System. This kit allows our customers to take advantage of an industry leading electronic design automation (EDA) technology that provides seamless schematic through layout interoperability with design rule checking (DRC). This integrated design flow can help accelerate our customers' time-to-market by offering an accurate and productive work environment," says Jim Milligan, director of RF and microwave products at Cree.

"GaN is becoming more and more important in the industry. With Cree's GaN process, our mutual customers have access to a powerful MMIC design solution in an integrated flow for leading-edge, high-power applications," says Anitha Swaminathan, foundry program manager with Agilent's EEsof EDA division.

For additional information about the Cree PDK, please call (919) 287-7816 or visit www.cree.com.