** BrainChip soars as much as 20.5% to A$0.265; biggest intraday pct gain since Oct. 10

** AI chip designer wins $1.8 mln contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop radar signal processing algorithms for its chips

** About 15.3 mln shares traded vs the 30-day avg of ~12.8 mln

** BRN up 50% YTD

(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru)

((Aaditya.govindrao@thomsonreuters.com;))