“This is where I want to be,” Paul says as he joins his engineering colleagues, down the hall from the janitor’s closet which once held the keys to his success.
Microscopic Giants
Powering American Defense
By Rachael Tiehel
Deeply embedded inside fighter jets, radars, satellites, and critical wartime platforms are tiny chips, with critical components smaller than a grain of sand, performing essential functions ranging from signal processing to control logic. Also referred to as microelectronics, these components execute critical jobs that allow each system to sense, process, and respond to threats —and they must work flawlessly, every single time.
Though the microchip is tiny, it is the invisible force and heartbeat of every mission.
Northrop Grumman proudly manufactures and procures millions of these microscopic heroes, including the world’s fastest microchip, in the United States every year, with plans to expand our domestic capabilities and partnerships. Investing in U.S.-based microelectronics manufacturing enables us to better secure our products and, consequently, the warfighters who rely on them.
“With our deep end-to-end knowledge and manufacturing capabilities, we can deliver the right chip, with the right capability to the right mission, every time,” said Robert Mendoza, operations manager of the microelectronics manufacturing facility in Redondo Beach, CA. “With our extensive background working with these technologies, we have perfected ways to add a broad range of functions to support our nation’s military and commercial needs.”
The Wafer Foundation
All chips start as wafers. Wafers can be purely silicon or layered with compounds of materials such as gallium and arsenic, or indium and phosphorous, to create semiconductor devices with functionality, like speed, frequency, and resiliency.
To create compound wafers, a very thin layer of highly tailored semiconductor materials is grown, atom by atom, to enhance functionality.
Boasting access to over 800 diverse materials, Northrop Grumman is one of the few microelectronics manufacturers worldwide that offers such extensive and readily accessible resources.
Fabrication Process
Once the wafer is made, it undergoes a fabrication process to create the unique devices each chip needs. This includes deposition, photolithography, and etching, repeating the cycle many times to get the necessary features. Once completed and tested, chips are sliced from the wafers using diamond saw blades or lasers and moved on to the next step of their life cycle.
“Fabricating wafers is like baking a tiered cake — each layer uses different recipes and ingredients, and variables like temperature and time can affect the texture, taste, or look of the cake,” said Vicky Zheng, a process integration engineer at Northrop Grumman’s Baltimore microelectronics manufacturing facility.
That cake-baking takes many skill sets to complete each step and create a worthy product. For decades, our engineers have perfected the manufacturing process - and they are continuing to innovate and advance new ideas to create microchips for any mission.
Packing Up Perfection
Advanced packaging integrates multiple chips with different properties and functions into a single, advanced solution. Think of building blocks stacked in ways that create a tower of power and performance, with each piece contributing to the end system.
“These 3-dimensional chip-stacking methods allow our products to do more, faster - while taking up less space and using less power. It’s critical technology,” said Brittany Battaglia, Advanced Packaging Program Manager.
Northrop Grumman has one of the few U.S.-based advanced packaging facilities, offering services that 98% of the chipmakers in our country need to source internationally.
American Made
Much of the semiconductor industry relies on Taiwan as a crucial part of the supply chain, which poses a risk due to the impending threat of China. Investing in U.S. facilities ensures more stability in the global climate and puts more program supply chains on U.S soil from start to finish. Northrop Grumman programs and our external defense and commercial partners will benefit from having more U.S manufacturing of semiconductor technologies.
To support American manufacturing, Northrop Grumman has three government-accredited manufacturing facilities across Maryland, California, and Florida, providing secure and protected places to build microelectronics. Expansion efforts are expected to quadruple chip production by 2030, helping us to employ thousands of hard-working Americans, enhance local economies, and build life-long careers. That’s how we’re powering the future of American defense.
Explore how Northrop Grumman is shaping the future of microelectronics and how you can get involved with career opportunities.
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