CONVENTIONAL SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO (SDR) BACKEND SIGNAL PROCESSORS ARE LIMITED BY A PRIORI SYSTEM DEFINITI…

Public award description

CONVENTIONAL SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO (SDR) BACKEND SIGNAL PROCESSORS ARE LIMITED BY A PRIORI SYSTEM DEFINITION AND RF HARDWARE. IDEALLY, ADVANCED SDR RF FRONT-END SECTIONS WOULD BE AS FLEXIBLE AS THEIR SOFTWARE BACK-ENDS, ALLOWING IN-USE OR IN-ORBIT RECONFIGURATION OF ORIGINAL BANDS AND MODULATION TYPES. THE FPMA/UTR PROPOSED HEREIN SHOULD MEET THIS CHALLENGE. THIS PROPOSED INNOVATION IS A DISTILLATION OF PHASE I CONCEPT EVALUATIONS WITH THE GOAL OF YIELDING A PRODUCIBLE AND FUNCTIONAL PROTOTYPE WITH PHASE II FUNDING. THE PROPOSED RF FRONT-END PROVIDES A POST-LAUNCH, IN-ORBIT RECONFIGURABLE RF MODULE AND IS CAPABLE OF HZ TO>150GHZ BANDWIDTH. BENEFITS INCLUDE VASTLY REDUCED SHELF INVENTORY OF EQUIPMENT ADDRESSING DIFFERENT RF REQUIREMENTS AND PERMITS EVER-READY DEPLOYMENT CAPABILITIES USING A SINGLE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT FEATURING THIS PROPOSED RF FRONT-END. THE UTR/FPMA'S MODULAR OPEN ARCHITECTURE FULLY COMPLEMENTS THE FLEXIBILITY OF SDR TECHNOLOGY. THE UTR/FPMA SERVICES COMMUNICATIONS OR RADAR FUNCTIONALITY, NARROW (KBPS) TO ULTRA-WIDEBAND (GHZ) MODULATION BANDWIDTHS, CENTER FREQUENCIES SCALABLE>150 GHZ: HEREIN UHF TO KA BAND. SMALL SIZE AND EXCEPTIONAL ROBUSTNESS (RADIATION HARDNESS, RELIABILITY) ARE EXPECTED DUE TO LOW ACTIVE COMPONENT COUNT AND MAINSTREAM MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES. THE UTR/FPMA RF MODULE USES ONLY CONVENTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES BUT CAN YIELD EXCELLENT SW&P CHARACTERISTICS.