A Raytheon-led team has accomplished a key step demonstrating that affordable, high-performance circuits for military applications can be produced by growing semiconductor compounds directly on silicon.

Demonstrating this highly innovative technique is part of a $6.5 million contract awarded by the Office of Naval Research and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It is a critical building block contributing to the ultimate success of DARPA's Compound Semiconductor Materials on Silicon, or COSMOS, program.

"Our team's process of directly growing a semiconductor compound on a uniquely engineered silicon substrate provides a technical approach that is creating a new class of integrated circuits that will be more affordable for our Defense Department customers," said Mark Russell, vice president of Engineering at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS).

"Selective placement of semiconductor compounds on silicon is an important achievement because it proves that optimal circuit performance can be produced through a heterogeneous, high-yield, monolithic integration process," said Dr. Tom Kazior, program manager at Raytheon IDS.

Teaming with Raytheon IDS on the COSMOS project are Raytheon Systems Limited in Glenrothes, Scotland; Teledyne Scientific Imaging Company in Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.; Paradigm Research LLC in Windham, N.H.; IQE in Bethlehem, Pa.; Soitec in Grenoble, France; and Silicon Valley Technology Center in San Jose, Calif.