Yield breakpoints between single/multifunction MMICs

It is now nearly a quarter of a century since the first GaAs FET based MMICs were demonstrated. After an initial period of experimentation and development, the medium entered true commercial exploitation in the 1980´s. At that time it was relatively expensive and found first insertion mainly in military systems but it has now found its was into many volume applications. This growth in exploitation has come about through two major causes - improved processing technologies and hence yields, and improved circuit design capability. This paper will attempt to illustrate how the improved yields have allowed circuit designers to produce complex, multifunction MMICs - in some cases, systems on a chip