How the MIMIC Program Catalyzed Northrop Grumman Leadership in Space

By Brooks McKinney, APR

Since the dawn of the space age, Northrop Grumman has partnered with the U.S. government to help define and implement many of the nation's most challenging space missions.

And the electronic payloads that drive those missions — everything from radiometers for NASA remote sensing missions to the satellite electronics that gather imagery and beam it securely around the world in the blink of an eye — trace their origin and performance back to the company's role as a prime contractor for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Microwave and Millimeter Wave Monolithic Integrated Circuits (MIMIC) program.

The MIMIC program and the gallium arsenide (GaAs) chip technology it produced have transformed both the U.S. space industry and consumer wireless communications. They've also helped Northrop Grumman create and solidify a partnership with DARPA that continues to fuel the company's ability to produce critical technology and subsystems for key U.S. space, ground and airborne missions.