Friday, June 21, 2013

TriQuint Hails Mars Mission

Hillsboro, Oregon- and Richardson, Texas-based TriQuint Semiconductor said Thursday that its chips were used in the Sky Crane landing radar of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and its Curiosity rover. Triquint said it has been supporting NASA programs for decades, but appears particularly proud of the so-far sucessful mission to Mars by the Curiosity rover. TriQuint said that the company's technology was used as part of the landing process for the Mars Curiosity, as part of the lowering of Curiosity to the Martian surface, saying that the is "one of the most exciting" uses of its technology for its design team. A range of TriQuint's chips (attenuator, RF power amplifier, frequency tripler) were used in the landing radar system.