SBIR-STTR Award

This is Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project demonstrates a breakthrough approach to very high-speed, high-resolution D/A conversion which improves the speed by up to five times the state-of-the-art by using a parallel array of individual converters. This significant performance improvements afforded by the Advanced Filter Bank Digital-to-Analog Converter (AFB DAC) architecture will be demonstrated by building and testing a pre-prototype breadboard implementation of the back-end electronics of a 14-bit AFB DAC system with 200 MHz sample rate (twice the speed of state-of-the-art). A faster 14-bit AFB DAC with 450 MHz sample rate will be developed in Phase II. The architecture works because the filter banks signal processing significantly reduces the sensitivity to analog mismatches (e.g., phase distortion, clock skew, temperature drift) which prohibit existing parallel conversion methods from achieving high resolution. The V Corp has proven the technical efficacy of the Advanced Filter Bank concept by successfully building and testing analog-to-digital converter hardware with 12-bit resolution and 260 MHz sample rate under another SBIR project. The AFB DAC architecture will always exceed the state-of-the-art because it can easily be upgraded as new, more powerful DAC products become available. The architecture is amenable to single-chip integration for compact, low power applications.Anticipated Benefits/Commercial Applications: Virtually any high performance modern electronics system will benefit greatly from the AFB DAC. Significant applications include enhancement of radar systems, wideband universal RF transceivers, specialized test equipment, and medical imaging systems.

This SBIR Phase II proposal develops two independent but complementary technologies that, when combined, provide up to an 8-fold increase in speed of analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion with high-resolution, wide dynamic range performance. The Advanced Filter Bank (AFB) technology provides the architecture to combine state-of-the-art converters to dramatically increase the speed. The Linearity Error Compensation (LinComp) technology provides dramatic improvements in dynamic range, which enables very accurate conversion at high IF or RF frequencies. By eliminating stages of RF downconversion or upconversion, these technologies greatly accelerate the progress toward direct digitization or synthesis of wideband data directly at the antenna element. The breakthrough in converter performance afforded by the AFB and LinComp technologies will be demonstrated by developing fully-functioning prototypes combining these technologies. An open architecture prototype system will be developed provide a versatile platform to rapidly develop, test, and integrate the very latest converters using these technologies; target specifications include: 1) 12-bit ADC with 1.6 GHz sample rate (with direct sampling up to 800 MHz IF or RF); 2) 14-bit ADC with 800 MHz sample rate (with direct sampling up to 400 MHz IF/RF); 3) 16-bit ADC with 400 MHz sample rate (with direct sampling up to 200 MHz IF/RF); and 4) 14-bit DAC with 2 GHz sample rate (with direct digital synthesis up to 1 GHz IF/RF) In addition, a very compact prototype AFB ADC system will be developed for demonstration in the Navy Theater Wide (NTW) digital beam former (DBF) array or other system to test the AFB and LinComp technologies 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 AFB and LinComp technologies have been specifically designed to avoid obsolescence because they can both be easily upgraded as new individual converters become available. This Phase II project is based upon two successful SBIR Phase I projects demonstrating the technical efficacy of these technologies in working lab breadboards. Numerous commercial and government entities have pledged a total of $490,000 of financial support for matching funds for this project; these entities will also provide technical support to help develop the technologies and a strong customer base for the commercialization in Phase III.The AFB and LinComp technologies overcome the critical analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion bottleneck which limits performance of state-of-the-art radio frequency transceiver systems. Significant applications include enhancement of advanced radar systems, wideband universal RF transceivers, wideband Electronic Warfare transceivers, multi-beam adaptive digital beamforming array transceivers, linearization of full RF receive or transmit chains, smart radios for wireless communications (cellular and satellite), wide bandwidth modems, high performance special test equipment, software radios, and anti-Jam GPS Receivers. The AFB and LinComp technologies greatly accelerate the progress toward direct digitization or synthesis of wideband data directly at the antenna element.

Keywords:
Analog-To-Digital Conversion, Digital-To-Analog Conversion, High-Resolution Conversion, High-Speed Conversion, Radio Frequency Communications, Di