IN Brief:
- Axiro’s Ku- and X-band BFICs are built on Tower Semiconductor’s SiGe technology.
- The devices target radar and SATCOM systems requiring gain, linearity, output power, efficiency, and fast switching.
- Secure domestic semiconductor sourcing is becoming a core requirement for high-frequency defence electronics.
Tower Semiconductor and Axiro Semiconductor have introduced high-performance silicon germanium beamforming ICs for US defence radar and satellite communications systems.
The Ku- and X-band beamforming ICs are designed by Axiro and fabricated by Tower Semiconductor in US facilities. The devices are ramping to volume production and target defence systems that require high gain, strong linearity, output power, high efficiency, and fast switching.
The BFICs are intended for modern phased-array radar and SATCOM applications, where RF front-end performance has a direct effect on beam agility, signal fidelity, power consumption, and platform-level integration. Axiro sells the devices directly, while Tower provides the SiGe foundry platform and domestic fabrication route.
The collaboration gives Axiro a US-fabricated RF silicon path for defence primes and radar manufacturers facing stricter sourcing expectations. Tower’s SiGe technology portfolio sits within a wider foundry offering that includes SiPho, BiCMOS, mixed-signal CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, integrated power management, and MEMS.
SiGe remains a key technology for high-frequency analogue and RF designs that require speed, noise performance, integration, and manufacturability. In radar and SATCOM systems, beamforming ICs occupy one of the most demanding parts of the signal chain. They have to support precise phase and amplitude control while operating across frequency bands, switching quickly, and maintaining output power and linearity.
Defence electronics programmes are putting greater emphasis on where critical semiconductor components are designed, fabricated, assembled, and supported. Radar, electronic warfare, satellite communications, and sensing systems rely on specialist RF and mixed-signal technologies that cannot be substituted easily if supply chains tighten or export controls shift. The foundry route is now part of the technical specification for many sensitive systems.
That supply-chain question differs from the one surrounding high-volume digital processors. Defence radar components are often lower volume, more specialised, and closely tied to platform performance. Securing those devices requires foundry access, RF design expertise, test capability, and long-term process availability. Without those elements, design teams face higher risk when moving phased-array systems from prototype to deployment.
Phased-array architectures continue to expand across airborne radar, ground-based surveillance, naval systems, missile defence, and satellite communications. These systems depend on repeated RF building blocks, with array-level performance shaped by the behaviour of many beamforming channels. Efficiency, output power, linearity, and switching speed all contribute directly to system capability.
Power efficiency is especially important in airborne and space-constrained systems, where thermal design, electrical load, and payload packaging are tightly linked. Higher output power and linearity support range and signal integrity, while faster switching supports more agile operation across changing mission conditions. In SATCOM terminals, similar pressures are visible as electronically steered antennas replace mechanically pointed systems in mobile and distributed connectivity platforms.
The Tower-Axiro devices place RF performance and domestic fabrication in the same package. As defence electronics moves deeper into electronically steered systems, access to secure high-frequency analogue semiconductor processes will shape the pace of radar and SATCOM modernisation.
