SBIR-STTR Award

This program will investigate the feasibility of developing a wide-band receiver that can monitor the total frequency coverage (0.05 to 18.0 GHz) in a manner that will enable the detection of conventional signals, pulsed Doppler signals, continuous wave signals, and low probability of intercept signals. Off-The-Shelf wide-band receivers are not suitable for wide-band verification instrumentation applications because they do not meet the detection time requirements necessary across the .5 - 18 GHz frequency band. This program will develop the requirements specification for the wide-band receiver, multiple receiver design approaches responding to the requirements specification and a trade-off study analyzing each design. There is potential commercial use of this wide-band receiver for evaluating electromagnetic environments and identifying potential interference of transient signals for verification of commercial radar test environments.

A wideband verification instrumentation system (WBVIS) will be developed and demonstrated that monitors the .5 and 18 GHz frequency output of complex Electronic Combat (EC) Radio Frequency (RF) threat environment simulators. The WBVIS will rapidly intercept and measure conventional and complex threat signals. It will provide real-time verification and visualization of the threat simulator output. In Phase I, a survey of EC receivers and RF monitoring equipment found that no off-the-shelf systems exist to do this function because they cannot simultaneously perform rapid intercept, measurement, and verification of signals. This program will implement and demonstrate an innovative WBVIS concept developed in Phase I. The concept includes a very fast tuning (< 50 microseconds) RF receiver with a programmable frequency scan and bandwidth to intercept and detect planned or unplanned signals within 100 milliseconds. To optimize signal intercept, the receiver scan and bandwidth adapts to the signal environment based on a priori information about the simulation. The system also performs detailed measurements to verify signal parameters. An innovative approach to visualize the EC threat environment interaction in real-time will be developed and demonstrated as a part of the WBVIS. A prototype system will be designed and integrated with an existing computer/display system in the US Air Force Integrated Defensive Avionics Laboratory (IDAL).