XCOM Wireless is a small fabless semiconductor and RF MEMS component developer. XCOM focuses on component products for Defense prime contractors and the commercial test and instrumentation communities. This program employs several emerging technologies to substantially improve the efficiency of high-power RF amplifiers, and enable radios to adapt to changing power levels, frequencies, battery conditions, antenna mismatch, and other operational problems. The program objectives are to design and fabricate an RF MEMS circuit that tunes a power amplifiers output matching circuit. The MEMS are fabricated by the contractor, and the amplifier circuit will be assembled out of high-power discrete transistor and passive components on a compact custom board. Actual hardware can be built and tested at low cost in this Phase I effort because all MEMS and transistor elements have already been designed and, in some cases, already qualified as industrial-grade COTS components. The result of this Phase I will be the first high-power (8 Watt, 280-320 MHz) amplifier that can adapt to changing conditions and perform at a consistently high efficiency regardless of typical operating conditions and output impedance variations.
Benefit: If successful, these technologies could be used in Government tactical radios of all sizes, cellular wireless infrastructure and consumer cellular telephones and notebooks. The direct benefits to the Department of Defense from supporting this effort begin with a relatively near-term opportunity to dramatically improve the battery life (30%+) of MUOS handsets and other small-form radios. Field tests on handsets, manpacks, unattended ground sensors, and infrastructure within three years is feasible, advancing TRL quickly due to a focused end product and strong contractor ties to a Prime radio supplier. Additional direct benefits will be realized down-stream using these technologies in reconfigurable communications systems with new types of module and system architectures (i.e., forward-compatible hardware to complement software-defined waveforms). These technologies accomplish power savings, but enable greater benefits of improved data link quality and reduced cost and component count to increase waveform support for the tactical warfighter. This program leverages internal XCOM and prime contractor MEMS circuit development efforts as well as ongoing complementary Government programs. This enables a small SBIR investment to achieve a high return 0x9D in terms of system relevance and prototype sophistication towards rapid Phase II hardware development and field testing. For consumer devices, these technologies reduce component count, enabling the use of next-generation smartphone broadband data waveforms at low-end handset prices. For cellular infrastructure, the greatest benefits are substantial energy savings, reducing carbon footprint. An estimated 10 million tons of CO2 can be eliminated within 5 years of the completion of Phase II. Total addressable markets in 2013 for these technologies are projected at $900 million across Government and civilian applications.
Keywords: Tunable, Tunable, efficiency, Power, radio, Communications, Amplifier, MUOS, MEMS
