The duration and financial terms of the program were not disclosed.

"It is a great opportunity for us to combine our expertise in MEMS with that of Northrop Grumman. We look forward to pushing the state of the art and assisting the advancement of ultra-reliable RF MEMS for both DoD and wireless communications," said Jonathan Bernstein, vice president of technology at Corning IntelliSense, in a statement.

RF MEMS leverage the mechanical and electrical attributes of MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) technology to address shortcomings of traditional semiconductor devices. In the case of RF switches, if adequate reliability could be achieved, a micro-mechanical switch could provide greater isolation than solid-state switch. For many wireless applications, RF MEMS could offer smaller, lower power, and higher performing communication products, Corning said.