This program served to accelerate the process of integrating new IC technology into weapon systems and close the growing disparity between commercial and military microelectronic products.

This program focused on creating the infrastructure necessary for the DoD to pursue and realize innovations in IC technology that reduce the size and cost of military electronics used in smart munitions while improving their power and reliability.

The semiconductor industry introduced new IC designs and production techniques at such a fast rate that electronic components in some military systems, as well as the facilities that produced them, faced the danger of early obsolescence.

[8][9] The VHSIC Program served to not only address the deficiencies present in the DoD related to IC procurement and integration but also close the 10-year gap between commercial and military microelectronic systems.

In service of these goals, the VHSIC Program engaged in the development of new materials, new circuit design concepts, advanced fabrication processes, new manufacturing equipment, higher levels of radiation hardening, and new data interface standards and specifications.

During the program, six prime contractors—Honeywell, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc., TRW Inc., IBM Corporation, Hughes Aircraft Company, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation—developed advanced microchip components to upgrade the DoD’s weapon systems.

[10][18] During the early 1970s, the Ballistic Research Laboratory, with funding from the U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM), contracted Sperry Microwave to develop a millimeter-wave homing seeker that used radar to search and track targets.

By 1983, Sperry Microwave demonstrated 5-mm seeker heads but reported that the radio frequency (RF) components and the antenna assembly represented 79.9 percent of the unit production cost of the front end of the radar system.

At the time, the erosion of U.S. manufacturing capabilities in microelectronics and the loss of U.S. dominance in the global semiconductor marketplace prompted the DoD to heavily scrutinize the entire process behind how U.S. industry provided new technologies to the military.

In 1984, MICOM conducted follow-up studies that determined the majority of companies working in the field of millimeter integrated circuits expressed little interest in the development of relevant manufacturing processes for the technology.

[22] As early as the 1970s, gallium arsenide attracted attention in industry as a promising alternative to silicon after GaAs semiconductor components exhibited relatively high performance levels.

By the early 1980s, GaAs MMICs, or Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits, demonstrated attractive qualities, but their high variability in material characteristics and design across industry made their performance inconsistent and unreliable.

Even though GaAs MMICs demonstrated potential to significantly augment the capabilities of modern electronics, the lack of commercial applications greatly discouraged companies from investing in the necessary infrastructure required to increase their yield and lower their costs.

Program managers operated under the belief that establishing this foundation in industry would enable the efficient, affordable, and self-sustaining production of MIMICs for military applications.

The laboratory managed a research thrust in low-cost millimeter-wave devices and nanosecond pulsers for target location and actively pursued monolithic technology based in GaAs.

In order to facilitate cooperation and promote a unified effort toward achieving the overarching goals, the armed services arranged the terms of the collaboration so that the industry partners shared their data, patent rights, and knowledge base with each other and combined their existing R&D fabrication processes as a baseline.

[10][19] The MIMIC Program was seen as a major success by the DoD and saw the establishment of the infrastructure and capabilities necessary to design and produce GaAs MMICs for a wide range of applications at low cost with high yield and reliability.

[20] While originally intended for military applications, the advancement of GaAs IC technology through the MIMIC Program significantly expanded the capabilities of modern electronic systems in the commercial sector.

[1][19] In addition, ETDL provided support to Army combat systems by maintaining a continuously upgraded base in electronics technology and devices and resolving performance shortfalls uncovered during developmental test programs.