Thermal challenges for electronic warfare to be tackled by BAE Systems under DARPA program
NewsMay 15, 2024
NASHUA, New Hampshire. BAE Systems won a $12 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to enhance thermal management in electronic warfare and other radio frequency-based applications, the company announced in a statement.
This initiative, under the Technologies for Heat Removal in Electronics at the Device Scale (THREADS) program, focuses on addressing the thermal limitations at the transistor level to improve power amplification in military applications. By developing new materials and methods for dissipating heat, the program aims to mitigate performance degradation in monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) that utilize gallium nitride (GaN) technology, the statement reads.
The effort to manage heat more effectively in GaN transistors could boost the operational range of RF-based military systems, enhancing the safety margin for warfighters by enabling longer engagement distances, the company says.
