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March 8, 2004 Volume 28, Issue 27 |
MSU helping Navy develop high-power radar systems
Mississippi State researchers are using a grant of more than $730,000 to perfect silicon carbide material technology that may help the U.S. Navy develop new high-power radar systems.
The Office of Naval Research award of $731,858 to the university's Emerging Materials Research Laboratory also may help promote the state's semiconductor industry.
MSU researchers will develop specialized material fabrication processes potentially important to development of silicon carbide-SiC-radio-frequency transistors for radar and other specific Navy and Marine Corps applications.
"We are trying to employ the latest developments in semiconductor physics, material science and chemistry," said principal investigator Yaroslav Koshka, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, administrative home to EMRL.
Scientists say the small, circular SiC wafers are used in high-voltage, high-temperature and high-frequency applications. They note SiC epitaxial growth is one of the more significant processes used to fabricate transistors.
SemiSouth Laboratories, a small Starkville-based business established in 2001 to commercialize SiC device technology, is one potential user of the material processes being developed by the MSU researchers. The company is located adjacent to campus in the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park.
Koshka said Dr. Charles U. Pittman Jr. also has become a valuable research ally in developing novel SiC epitaxial growth processes and simulation models. Pittman, a chemistry professor, is a co-principal investigator in the EMRL project.