TriQuint Wins $4.5M Navy Contract for High Voltage, High Power GaAs Amplifiers

TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ: TQNT), a leading RF products manufacturer and foundry services provider, today announced that the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded TriQuint a 21-month, $4.5 million contract to advance manufacturing methods used to produce high-power, high-frequency gallium arsenide (GaAs) amplifiers. TriQuint was chosen based on its experience developing high-performance, high-reliability amplifiers for a wide range of defense and aerospace applications, according to Dr. David Fanning, TriQuint Contract Program Manager.

"Winning this contract demonstrates the government’s confidence in TriQuint’s ability to develop the critical technologies needed for Department of Defense applications. High voltage gallium arsenide is a tested and proven technology that exhibits high reliability using existing processes and materials, ideally suited for military and commercial production programs,” explained Dr. Fanning.

He added that TriQuint’s high voltage pHEMT (pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor) GaAs technology will be the focus of the new ONR program since it provides higher power density (more power per square millimeter of surface area) and efficiency compared to other processes. These performance characteristics are required for critical Navy applications including phased array radar, electronic warfare and communications systems. TriQuint has been developing high voltage gallium arsenide pHEMT technology since 2000; advanced X-band and S-band versions of that process were developed under previous ONR contracts.

Fanning explained that the new program’s objectives are to extend the use of the high voltage gallium arsenide pHEMT technology to higher frequencies. In the first phase of the program TriQuint will develop a new high-frequency, high-power device technology and will extract circuit design models. In the second phase, TriQuint will design and fabricate high power monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). TriQuint is the sole contractor and is performing the work at its Richardson, Texas facility.

Remarking about the new contract, Dr. Gailon Brehm, TriQuint’s Defense and Aerospace Product Marketing Director said, "TriQuint currently supplies high volume, cost-effective foundry services and standard products based on both low- and high-voltage gallium arsenide. This enhanced high frequency technology will extend the capability of our GaAs process family to the higher voltage needed for both military and commercial applications at frequencies above 20 GHz. As such it will provide a new capability intermediate between today’s GaAs and the emerging GaN technology.”

The Office of Naval Research in Arlington, VA is the contracting agency (N00014-08-C-0636) for TriQuint Semiconductor’s latest advanced GaAs research and production development program.

TriQuint is a leading manufacturer of high-performance, high-reliability integrated circuits for communications and radar programs as well as other advanced defense and aerospace systems. TriQuint offers customers a wide range of expertise in high-voltage GaAs pHEMT, other GaAs-based processes, gallium nitride (GaN), surface acoustic and bulk acoustic wave (SAW / BAW) technologies. TriQuint’s technological leadership as well as its expertise in low-cost packaged devices and MMICs has made the company a leading supplier of RF system components to major defense contractors and leading government laboratories such as the Office of Naval Research and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

For more information about TriQuint products for defense and aerospace, visit www.triquint.com. Register for product updates and our newsletter at: www.triquint.com/rf.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. (Nasdaq: TQNT) press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The cautionary statements made in this press release should be read as being applicable to all related statements wherever they appear. Statements containing such words as ‘leading’, ‘exceptional’, ‘high efficiency’, ‘key role’, ‘leading supplier’, or similar terms are considered to contain uncertainty and are forward-looking statements. A number of factors affect TriQuint’s operating results and could cause its actual future results to differ materially from any results indicated in this press release or in any other forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, TriQuint including, but not limited to: those associated with the unpredictability and volatility of customer acceptance of and demand for our products and technologies, the ability of our production facilities and those of our vendors to meet demand, the ability of our production facilities and those of our vendors to produce products with yields sufficient to maintain profitability, as well as the other "Risk Factors” set forth in TriQuint’s most recent 10-Q report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This and other reports can be found on the SEC web site, www.sec.gov. A reader of this release should understand that these and other risks could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations expressed / implied in forward-looking statements.

FACTS ABOUT TRIQUINT

Founded in 1985, we "Connect the Digital World to the Global Network”™ by supplying high-performance RF modules, components and foundry services to the world's leading communications companies. Specifically, TriQuint supplies products to four out of the top five cellular handset manufacturers, and is a leading gallium arsenide (GaAs) supplier to major defense and space contractors. TriQuint creates standard and custom products using advanced processes that include gallium arsenide, surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) technologies to serve diverse markets including wireless handsets, base stations, broadband communications and military. TriQuint is also lead researcher in a 3-year DARPA program to develop advanced gallium nitride (GaN) amplifiers. TriQuint, as named by Strategy Analytics in August 2008, is the number-three worldwide leader in GaAs devices and the world’s largest commercial GaAs foundry. TriQuint has ISO9001 certified manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Texas, and Florida and a production plant in Costa Rica; design centers are located in North America and Germany. Visit TriQuint at www.triquint.com/rf to receive new product information and to register for our newsletters.