Amid US tech sanctions, Chinese scientists say they made the world’s most powerful radar chip
- New semiconductor performs at orders of magnitude higher than similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems, says Chinese team
- It uses gallium nitride despite export bans by the US government blocking high powered gallium-based semiconductors to China
The finger-sized chip can generate radar signals with peak power reaching 2.4 kilowatts. It is one or two orders of magnitude higher than the performance of similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems.
The new chips can be used to build an extremely powerful radar that operates in the X band – a high-frequency microwave range used mostly by the military to identify threats and guide missiles – and can be mass-produced at relatively low cost, according to the researchers.
Existing chip technology “cannot meet the demand of new, ultra-high power microwave systems due to their relatively low power density”, said the team led by senior engineer Hu Yansheng, of the China Electronics Technology Group (CETC).
The new chip had “a bright future in practical applications”, Hu and his colleagues said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Research and Progress of Solid-State Electronics last month.
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