Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits

March 5, 2022

Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) are a type of integrated circuit (IC) devices that have numerous applications in various sectors.

About Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs)

MMICs operate at microwave frequencies (300 MHz to 300 GHz). They are very small in size and can be produced on a large scale. This mass production of MMICs was one of the reasons behind the mobile phone revolution in India
MMICs perform various functions such as mixing of microwaves, power and low-noise amplification, and high-frequency switching. Originally gallium arsenide (GaAs) was used to fabricate MMICs. Now, they can also be fabricated in silicon (Si) technology, which reduces fabrication costs.
Today, MMICs are a popular choice for high-frequency applications, due to advantages like small size, reasonable cost, and high performance. However, it is difficult to tune the performance of MMICs, once fabrication is done. This is their main disadvantage.

MMICs developed by DRDO

On 4^th March 2022, the Ministry of Defence stated that MMICs indigenously developed by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) were onboard the Earth Observation Satellite – 04 (EOSO4 satellite). MMICs have been used in radar imaging modules of the EOSO4 satellite.

About EOSO4 satellite

EOSO4 satellite is a follow-on to the RISAT-1 satellite. It is developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It was launched on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C52) on 14^th February 2022, along with two other satellites, INS-2TD and INSPIREsat-1.

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