SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project demonstrates a breakthrough approach to very high-speed, high-resolution analog-to-digital conversion or digital-to-analog conversion which improves the speed of conversion by up to six times the state-of-the-art by using a parallel array of individual converters. The V-Corp Advanced Filter Bank Analog and Digital Converter (AFB ADC) architecture works because the filter bank signal processing significantly reduces the sensitivity to analog mismatches (e.g., phase distortion, clock skew, temperature drift) which prohibit existing parallel conversion methods (e.g., Time-Interleaving) from achieving high resolution. V-Corp has proven the technical efficacy of the concept by successfully building prototype analog-to-digital converter hardware with 12-bit resolution and 260 MHz sample rate (over twice as fast as state-of-the-art) and prototype digital-to-analog converter hardware with 14-bit resolution and 240 MHz sample rate (twice state-of-the-art). Very importantly, the AFB ADC architecture will never become obsolete and will always exceed the state-of-the-art because it can easily be upgraded as new, more powerful ADC products become available. The architecture is amenable to single-chip integration for compact, low-power applications. The AFB ADC technology enables an advanced all-digital shipboard array with multiple beams and a single aperture, steerable nulls to mitigate co-site interference and jammers, fast beam pointing and target acquisition, software reconfigurability, and affordability due to high levels of circuit integration. During Phase I, V-Corp will demonstrate the architecture with the very latest analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog converters, demonstrate an efficient auto-calibration section in hardware, and utilize proprietary linearity error compensation routines to improve the dynamic range of the system. A realtime hardware implementation of the digital signal processing in the AFB architecture will be implemented in a Phase I Option. During Phase II, a compact realtime implementation of the AFB ADC system (including the auto-calibration section) will be implemented and integrated in a target system (e.g., radar, GPS receiver, communications system according to the sponsor's requirements).The AFB ADC approach overcomes the critical A/D conversion bottleneck which limits performance of state-of-the-art radio frequency transceiver systems. Virtually any high-performance modern electronic system will benefit from the AFB ADC. Significant applications include enhancement of radar systems, wideband universal RF transceivers, specialized test equipment, and medical imaging systems.

This SBIR Phase II project develops an adaptive processing analog-to-digital converter technology that provide up to an 8-fold increase in speed of conversion with high-resolution, wide dynamic range performance. The Adaptive-Advanced Filter Bank (A-AFB) technology provides an architecture to combine state-of-the-art converters to dramatically increase the speed while maintaining high resolution . The performance of the AFB architecture is greatly enhanced by the application of highly innovative adaptive processing. By eliminating stages of RF downconversion, this technology greatly accelerates the progress toward direct digitization of wideband data directly at the antenna/aperture and substantially reduces part count, power requirements, mass, and increases reliability. In this project, V-Corp will take this technology from the breadboard/concept phase to the fully functioning product design and prototyping stage which provides performance well beyond state-of-the art for use in a functional demonstration vehicle. An open architecture prototype system will be implemented to provide a versatile platform to rapidly develop, test, and integrate the very latest converters with a variety of adaptive array processing AFB algorithms, which greatly simplify calibration, track and correct errors that drift over time and temperature, and improves performance; target specifications include: 12-bit ADC with 1.0 GHz sample rate (with direct sampling up to 750 MHz IF or RF). In addition, a very compact prototype A-AFB ADC system will be implemented for demonstration in an operationally relevant environment; this system will be designed to provide beyond state-of-the-art, extremely high-speed and high-resolution analog-to-digital conversion in a very compact package. Very importantly, the A-AFB technology has been specifically designed to avoid obsolescence because it can be easily upgraded as new individual converters become available. This Phase II project is based upon a highly successful SBIR Phase I project demonstrating the technical efficacy of this technology in working lab breadboards. In addition, the basic AFB technology was successfully used in a proof-of-concept Digital Beamforming Array system at Harris Corporation which demonstrated the technical feasibility of the basic AFB technology in an operationally relevant environment. A four-element antenna array was constructed by Harris to demonstrate a very wide dynamic range, wide bandwidth digital beamforming system with adaptive beamsteering and nulling. The V-Corp AFB analog-to-digital converter technology was the enabling technology that provided the wideband wide dynamic range performance. The AFB modules were integrated and tested with the digital beamforming system, thereby successfully demonstrating beyond state-of-the-art performance in an operationally relevant environment. Numerous commercial entities have pledged a total of $363,000 of financial support for commercialization of this technology; these entities will also provide technical support to develop the technologies and a strong customer base for the commercialization in Phase III