SBIR-STTR Award

Supporting multiple missile types, and frequency bands, is the inherent functionality of the Space Micro's Dual channel Software Defined Radio. As a repurposed SDR, this hardware radio supports firmware reprogramming to multiple waveform configurations (DoD specified), and accepts IF block down-conversions from L, S, C, X, and Ku bands. Size and power usage are only a small fraction of the legacy systems currently deployed (according to non-classified data comparisons); however, full legacy compatibility and interoperability are inherent and guaranteed by design. Further, support for future missile waveforms is supported due to the generous digital signal processing logic resources made available by the Xilinx Kintex-7 series FPGA used in the Space Micro tri-band SDR. Figure 1 illustrates the functional blocks of our dual-channel SDR.

Space Micro's uLINK ("micro-LINK") SDR system is a robust missile data link radio inserted in existing Army hardware to satisfy the multi-mission demands of the IFPC-inc2 requirements. Based upon the robust DCT software defined radio, and interfacing existing RF and antennae hardware, we have shown that we can operate and is as a legacy data-link for initial integration, and as a tri-band (S, C, and X-band) multi-link in highly congested fire solution environssimultaneously maintaining up to 5 in-flight missile data links (MDLs) per band.