WAVICE, a defense industry and gallium nitride (GaN) RF (radio frequency) semiconductor company, announced on the 28th that it has signed a mass production contract for a high-power amplifier board for the long-range surface-to-air missile system (L-SAM) multifunction radar with Hanwha System worth 26.5 billion won.
This order comes as WAVICE transitioned to a mass production project from the L-SAM exploration and system development project that it has been involved in since 2016 until the end of last year. The L-SAM is a long-range surface-to-air missile independently developed by South Korea. It is a core component of the Korean Air Missile Defense System (KAMD), intercepting ballistic missiles at the terminal stage or shooting down aircraft at long ranges, also referred to as the "Korean THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense)."
The high-power amplifier board supplied by WAVICE is a key component in the multifunction radar developed by Hanwha System. It controls and sends out the transmission power in the AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) type transmit module. As a component that directly affects the detection range and accuracy of the L-SAM, it uses gallium nitride RF semiconductors.
A WAVICE official said, "As a key technology corporation participating in the L-SAM project, which is regarded as a symbol of South Korea's defense technology independence and localization, we will expand our role and contribute to the localization of technologies for various weapons systems and securing export bases in the future."