United Semiconductors, LLC

United Semiconductors, LLC, a woman-owned small business based in Los Alamitos, California, manufactures advanced semiconductor materials and crystal growth systems for in-space production, competing as a prime contractor exclusively under total small business set-asides and full-and-open awards to NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Navy. The vendor is a sole proprietorship structured as a limited liability company and operates across research, development, and manufacturing of high-purity semiconductor crystals, composite materials, and specialized reactors for microgravity environments.

United Semiconductors' capability portfolio centers on crystal growth technologies for aerospace and defense applications. The vendor's largest contract is an $8.371 million definitive-price agreement with NASA Johnson Space Center (awarded July 30, 2026, extending through September 15, 2030) for in-space production of semimetal-semiconductor composite crystals, semi-insulating semiconductors, and semiconductor alloy crystals. Prior Johnson Space Center work includes a $2.712 million contract (August 10, 2022, through June 30, 2027) for the same material classes and a $1.25 million Air Force Research Laboratory contract (January 30, 2024, through April 17, 2026) for production of electro-optical infrared-grade large-diameter binary and ternary III-V semiconductor bulk crystals under SBIR Phase II. Recent SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards with the Shared Services Center cover physical vapor deposition reactor design and validation for aluminum nitride single-crystal in-space manufacturing ($849,799 Phase II through July 30, 2027; $149,995 Phase I through February 6, 2025) and microgravity-engineered semiconductor device architecture for quantum computing and quantum sensing ($224,997 through March 30, 2027). The vendor also holds a $275,000 NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships project grant (March 15 to August 31, 2024) for development of a universal crystal growth capsule and wafer dicing tool for in-space semiconductor manufacturing.

Customer concentration is anchored by NASA Johnson Space Center, which accounts for $11.1 million (two awards) of the vendor's $13.6 million combined potential value portfolio. NASA's Shared Services Center provides a secondary cluster with three SBIR awards totaling $1.2 million. The Air Force Research Laboratory ($1.2 million) and the Navy Office of Naval Research ($18 thousand) round out the active customer set. All ten awards are prime positions with no subcontract footprint; the vendor executes work directly. Activity has accelerated in 2024 and 2026 (three and two awards respectively) after a dormant 2023, but the award count remains sparse—ten total awards spanning eighteen years. Three awards (combined potential value $3.8 million) reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete exposure for the vendor and opportunity for competitors on those vehicles. The source indicates concurrent NSF-funded research into advanced hardware for in-space semiconductor manufacturing, suggesting pipeline activity beyond the formal contract and grant awards listed.