152 GHz record circuit speed

A Team led by Britain's BAE Systems aerospace and defence group has achieved what it claims is a record digital circuit speed as a result of developing next-generation transistor technology.

The team - made up of experts from BAE, Vitesse Semiconductor and the University of Illinois in the US - claims that its technology improves speed, integration density and power consumption for solid-state integrated circuits.

It demonstrated a circuit with a clock frequency of 152 GHz and which is believed to be an industry record for static frequency divider circuits.

The new transistor was developed under a contract given to BAE in 2002 by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

BAE says the DARPA program seeks to improve micro-circuit performance and at the same time lower power consumption.

Higher performance at lower power in more highly integrated packages will benefit systems where limited weight and power requirements are crucial.

The technology will be used to develop the next-generation of miniature digital receivers and exciters that are needed for future strike, surveillance and electronic attack missions.

It will enable the development of new subsystems such as low cost in-combat programmable electronic warfare jammers, expendable surveillance sensors and frequency agile software radios for secure communications.