SBIR-STTR Award

MMCOMM with support from UCLA will design a low mass, low power digital beamforming (DBF) subarray for radar and communications applications. The technology is applicable to any communication or radar band, namely L, S, X or EHF. We will evaluate advanced DDS and D/A digital waveform generation. We will investigate flexible membrane materials such as Kapton and Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP). Tradeoffs will be performed comparing alternate architectures. The baseline approach is a DDS waveform generator feeding a hybrid RF/IF - digital beamformer. The DDS based approach is based upon extending the current MMCOMM developed DDS technology that operates at Ka-band. The digital beamforming technology is based upon that currently under development at UCLA for the commercial wireless market. Thus the utilization of applicable COTS technology is a potential realization for the proposed design. We will leverage the current MMCOMM DDS and microwave / MMW MMIC capability plus the UCLA MMW Lab DBF capability to develop the solution for Phase I. We will investigate the applicability of waveforms such as CDMA and OFDM. For Phase II we will propose building a demo subarray leveraging off the newly developing COTS microwave / MMW technology at MMCOMM and the MMW / digital beamforming technology at UCLA. A digital beamforming subarray having very low mass, and power consumption is an extremely useful component for DBF phased array antennas and DBF array feeds to lens and reflector antennas, for both military and commercial use. Space-based radar/communication/surveillance/reconnaissance systems would benefit greatly from the development of this technology. Military applications include satellite radar and communications systems at S-band thru Extremely High Frequency bands. Commercial applications that would benefit from this technology include satellite-based global communications systems

The objective of the Phase II study is to develop a demonstration model of low-cost, low-power, lightweight, multiple-function aperture (L3MFA) equipment for integration on a small UAV such as Silver Fox. The demonstration model will be based on (1) the Lightweight UAV SAR/MTI Radar (LUAVR) system being developed for CECOM under an SBIR II+ contract with an expected completion date of 1 Dec. 05, plus (2) MMCOMMís millimeter-wave point-to-point (PtP) or point-to-multipoint (PMP) radio system. L3MFA will be a reduced weight version of LUAVR, whose target weight is seven (7) pounds, by increasing the operating frequency so that the mechanically scanned antenna will weigh less than 2 lbs. The complete equipment weight from the Phase II design will be less than 4 lbs. It will feature advanced and innovative millimeter-wave and MMIC technology. Advanced direct digital synthesis (DDS) waveform generation, advanced digital down conversion (DDC) using FPGA and advanced signal processing will be incorporated. The system will consume low power (less than 90 Watts) and aim for low production cost. In the radar mode of operation, the instrument will feature MTI and SAR modes and have a maximum range up to 3 Km. A combination of motion measurement sensor (MMS) and signal based mocomp will be incorporated to ensure high image quality. In the Comm mode of operation, the instrument can steer the antenna toward the base station to establish a high data rate of at least 100-Mbps for a range of 3 Km. As an option to the Phase II, we will consider inserting an EOIR sensor into the instrument to perform additional mode of operations.

Keywords:
Synthetic Aperture Radar (Sar), High Data-Rate Communications, Moving Target Indicator (Mti), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav), Millimeter-Wave (Mmw), Mu