On October 2, 2026, Northrop Grumman announced FORTITUDE, a gallium nitride (GaN) chip technology that packs wireless circuit functions into a device about the size of a grain of rice. The company touts "3x the power and 20x the signal quality," and says the chip could replace dozens of components in radio circuits for satellites and radar. FORTITUDE is a new name for the field-effect transistor technology the company has developed for years, known as SLCFET.
What the announcement puts front and center is a design that consolidates two functions into a small semiconductor: switching signal paths across a wide range of frequencies, and removing unwanted frequency components. To understand what the multipliers shown in the official announcement actually mean, it helps to look separately at the structure and at the specifications of products already on the market.
Switching signal paths and removing unwanted frequencies
FORTITUDE is said to combine a switch that selects the path a signal takes with a filter that passes the needed frequencies while suppressing unwanted ones. Wireless equipment has to switch between transmit and receive paths, and select circuits according to the frequency band in use. If these functions can be integrated into a single semiconductor, the wiring and mounting area needed to connect discrete components can be reduced.
Northrop Grumman's new briefing material says the chip covers frequencies from the kHz range up to 20GHz and can switch in under one nanosecond. It will come in medium-power and high-power versions, and the company envisions use in defense surveillance and communications systems as well as future 6G deployments.
However, this frequency range is not a direct measure of communication speed, and a switching time of under one nanosecond does not indicate latency across an entire network.
Making a component smaller is not enough in itself. If miniaturization increases wiring loss or heat, signals can actually get weaker. FORTITUDE aims to shrink the device while keeping loss low when passing a signal and leakage low when blocking one. Two features support that balance: a "superlattice" of thinly stacked GaN-based materials, and a gate structure that controls the stacked layers in three dimensions.
Controlling stacked channels from the sides as well
In an RF switch, on-state resistance causes signal loss. Meanwhile, the capacitance that remains in the off state becomes a path through which high-frequency signals leak. In typical designs, making the device larger to let current flow more easily also tends to increase capacitance, making it hard to achieve both low loss and strong blocking performance at high frequencies.
Northrop Grumman's earlier technical explanation also describes this resistance-capacitance trade-off as the problem SLCFET was meant to solve.
SLCFET alternately stacks thin layers of aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) and GaN to form multiple channels through which electrons flow. By stacking current paths vertically and running them in parallel, the design lowers resistance without enlarging the device in the planar direction.
Stacking channels, however, creates another problem. The upper channels shield the electric field from the gate, so applying a field only from the top makes it hard to control the lower channels adequately.
To address this, the surface of the stacked semiconductor is given a corrugated profile, and the gate follows not only the top but also the sides. Applying the electric field from the sides as well allows the structure to control multiple channels. The "castellated" in SLCFET refers to a battlement-like profile, which also ties into the fortress-evoking brand name FORTITUDE.
This structure itself is not being disclosed for the first time. An abstract from a 2015 AVS symposium talk by Northrop Grumman researchers described the parallel-channel and side-gate mechanism, and reported a measured insertion loss of 0.25dB at 10GHz for a switch covering 1 to 18GHz.
Insertion loss indicates how much power is lost by inserting a component into a signal path. This past measurement reflects accumulated development work, but it is not a measurement of the full specifications of the FORTITUDE announced now.
How significant is the existing product's 0.38dB?
The existing product "SF0083," which uses SLCFET technology, is a switch that routes one input signal to either of two paths. Northrop Grumman's 2024 datasheet lists the specifications needed to build it into an actual circuit, such as operating frequency and control voltage.
| Item | SF0083 published specification | What it tells us |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency range | 0.5–25GHz | The frequency band this product covers |
| Chip dimensions | 1,330×1,340μm (1.33×1.34mm) | Supplied as a bare chip; external wiring is required when mounting |
| Control voltage | 0V / −14V, typical | A voltage for switch control is needed separately from the RF signal |
| Recommended ambient temperature | −40 to 85°C | The recommended operating temperature range for this product |
| Insertion loss | 0.38dB, typical | A simulated value assuming 50Ω termination |
The SF0083's typical insertion loss of 0.38dB converts to a power loss of about 8.4%. However, this is a simulated value that assumes 50Ω termination.
The conversion uses transmitted power ratio = 10^(−insertion loss [dB]/10). At 0.38dB, about 91.6% of the power passes through and about 8.4% is lost. The basis is the electrical characteristics table and Figure 1 in the same document, where the loss near 25GHz is about 0.38dB.
That does not mean the loss is constant across all frequency bands, nor does it guarantee the same value in a circuit after assembly.
In a receiver circuit, reducing the power lost along the way makes it easier to deliver a stronger signal to later stages. But this value alone cannot tell us what percentage of total equipment power consumption would be saved.
Also, because the frequency and evaluation conditions differ from the 2015 measurement, the relative size of the numbers alone cannot be used to judge performance differences between generations. The published materials also do not make clear how the SF0083 corresponds to the product family now being rolled out as FORTITUDE.
Mass-production technology exists, but that is separate from FORTITUDE as a whole being put to practical use
In Northrop Grumman's current product listing, SLCFET "3S" and "3HP" are classified as being in production, and both are described as processes using 100mm wafers. The SF0083 is also listed as an in-stock product. So at least for SLCFET, a production process and actually supplied products exist beyond research prototypes.
However, having an established production process is not the same as products with all the functions FORTITUDE promises being adopted in each application. Even when stock is shown in a product listing, lead times, available quantities, and prices are not apparent.
In addition, for products supplied as bare chips like the SF0083, circuit design including packaging and external wiring is required. It cannot be assumed that they can directly replace components in existing equipment.
Research is also under way to integrate more functions on the same technology base. A 2023 CS MANTECH conference paper by researchers from Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory reported improved breakdown voltage and high-frequency characteristics from using a high-permittivity gate insulating film in an SLCFET amplifier.
The paper positions SLCFET as a technology base on which existing switches and amplifiers can be integrated on the same wafer. If circuits that amplify signals can be built onto the same base alongside switches and filters, it may become easier to miniaturize wireless circuits that flexibly handle multiple frequency bands and uses.
Regarding manufacturing sites, the new materials say FORTITUDE will be developed and manufactured in Linthicum, Maryland. The overall Microelectronics business is described as operating two semiconductor fabs and an advanced packaging facility in the United States.
Being able to manufacture domestically is an important factor for procurement and supply chains in defense applications. However, the production capacity of the entire Microelectronics business cannot simply be regarded as FORTITUDE's own supply capacity or shipment volume.
Evaluating "3x" and "20x" requires comparison conditions
The "3x the power" and "20x the signal quality" claimed in the announcement come with no specific comparison target or absolute values. The same multipliers appear in the official infographic, but it is not made clear which metric was used to measure "signal quality," or under what frequency, temperature, and circuit conditions the comparison was made.
For that reason, "20x" cannot be read as meaning communication speed rises 20-fold or that signal-to-noise ratio improves 20-fold.
The frequency figures also need to be read separately for the technology base and for individual products. The kHz to 20GHz range in the new materials, the SF0083's 0.5–25GHz, and the DC to 100GHz in the manufacturing process table each refer to different subjects.
Even if a manufacturing process supports a wide frequency range, not every circuit built on it has the same frequency band or output performance. Mentions of future 6G and space systems likewise do not mean that compliance with specific standards or actual deployment has been confirmed.
When adopting FORTITUDE in actual equipment, the first factors for judgment would be insertion loss and distortion at the frequencies and output conditions in use, and thermal characteristics once built into a package. Beyond that, how much a circuit can be simplified by replacing multiple existing components will need to be evaluated on real hardware.
Once such product-by-product performance and supply conditions become clear, it will be possible to assess concretely how practical low-loss switch technology using a superlattice structure is as a means of consolidating multiple wireless functions into compact hardware.