NOVEL PHOTONIC RF SPECTROMETER LEVERAGING ON RECENT BREAKTHROUGHS IN BROADBAND PHOTONIC DEVICES AND COMPONE…

Public award description

NOVEL PHOTONIC RF SPECTROMETER LEVERAGING ON RECENT BREAKTHROUGHS IN BROADBAND PHOTONIC DEVICES AND COMPONENTS FOR RF AND MICROWAVE APPLICATIONS, SML PROPOSES A NEW TYPE OF BROADBAND MICROWAVE SPECTROMETER WITH PERFORMANCE AND AFFORDABILITY THAT WERE NOT ATTAINABLE BEFORE. THE PHOTONIC MICROWAVE SPECTROMETER OVERCOMES THE CONSTRAINS ASSOCIATED WITH MICROWAVE ELECTRONICS, LINEARLY AND SIMULTANEOUSLY OFFERING 6-18 GHZ (POTENTIALLY UP TO 100 GHZ) BANDWIDTH, HIGH RESOLUTION OF SUB-HUNDRED MHZ, AND HUGE NUMBERS OF CHANNELS (HUNDREDS TO 1024 CHANNELS). THE DEVICES AND COMPONENTS USED IN THE PROPOSED NOVEL SPECTROMETER ARE COMMERCIAL OFF-THE-SHELF. OUR MINIATURE LOW COST DESIGN IS WELL SUITED FOR THE SPECTRUM MONITOR AND SENSOR REQUIREMENT FOR A WIDE RANGE OF NASA, MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS. OUR UNCONVENTIONAL FLIGHT QUALIFIABLE APPROACH ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR FREQUENCY DOWN-CONVERTER, MOVING COMPONENTS, LOCAL OSCILLATOR, AND HAS INTRINSICALLY TEMPERATURE INDEPENDENT OPERATION. IN PHASE I, SML WILL TEST AN EVALUATION PROTOTYPE TO DEMONSTRATE THE PROPOSED NOVEL RF/MICROWAVE SPECTROMETER BASED ON HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPONENTS AND BUILD A SYSTEM MODEL TO SIMULATE AND VERIFY SPECTROMETER'S DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE.