Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub

The Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub brings together the leading regional experts in wide bandgap semiconductors to develop an increase in domestic production and employment. Wide bandgap semiconductors offer higher voltage and temperature capacity than traditional silicon chips. They are used in power electronics, but also in RF and wireless devices for communications and radars, as well as photonic devices for sensing, communications, artificial intelligence, and future quantum technology applications.

By implementing a Research Foundry (“fab-in-a-lab”), CLAWS is advancing and accelerating the manufacture and adoption of wide bandgap semiconductors for DoD and civilian applications in four principal areas:

  1. High voltage, high power Silicon Carbide power electronics
  2. III-Nitride RF and Power Electronics
  3. III-Nitride Photonics
  4. Ultra-Wide Bandgap devices
Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS)

John Muth

Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering

North Carolina State University

Contact The CLAWS Hub

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Technology Areas Supported by the Hub

Commercial Leap-Ahead Technologies
5G/6G Technology
Artificial Intelligence Hardware
Electromagnetic Warfare
Quantum Technology

Hub Project Awards

  • Commercial Leap Ahead ($3.83M) 
    • High Permittivity Dielectrics to Increase the Performance of III-Nitride Transistors
      • The award will increase the efficiency and radiation hardness of advanced transistors used in avionics and satellite applications.
  • Commercial Leap Ahead ($3.68M) 
    • Transition Readiness for NITride Rf Overmatch (T/R NITRO)
      • The award will deliver advance prototypes of high frequency transistors and circuits for use in electronic warfare, radars, and 5G/6G telecommunications.
  • Commercial Leap Ahead ($7.82M) 
    • Advanced High Voltage Silicon Carbide Switches
      • The award will push the development of 6.5 to 10 kV planar field-effect transistors (FETs) into a low-volume production environment and develop 6.5 to 10 kV Superjunction (SJ) devices, in which the U.S. is at the forefront of competition.
  • Commercial Leap Ahead ($3.52M)   
    • Advanced Power Switches using UWBG Gallium Oxide
      • The award will advance the state-of-the-art in gallium oxide high voltage switching devices by producing power diodes and power transistors capable of blocking up to 10kV, and make available the epilayers, devices, and composite substrates to the DoD and community at-large through the CLAWS hub.

CLAWS Hub Member List

Adroit
Air Force Research Lab (AFRL)
Army Research Lab (ARL)
BluGlass
Central Carolina Community College (CCCC)
Coherent
EPC Space
General Electric
Kyma Technologies
Lockheed Martin
MACOM
Modern Microsystems

NASA
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University (NCA&T)
North Carolina State University
RTI International
Sandia National Laboratory
State University of New York (SUNY) Albany
Stony Brook University
UC Santa Barbara
University of Florida