4.3 GHz Passive Wireless Sensor System

Thru several NASA SBIR/STTR and DoD contracts, the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Center for Acoustoelectronics Technology (CAAT) group has a developed and demonstrated a complete 915 MHZ SAW sensor system, having measured temperature, strain, hydrogen gas, magnetic fields and others. Pegasense and UCF will team and collaborate to further the state-of-the-art in wireless sensor technology effort, provide a handheld wireless sensor system at TRL 3-4 in Phase I and TRL 5-6 in Phase II, and demonstrate sensor interrogation using multiple temperature sensor platforms at 4.3 GHz. It is asignificant upgrade of the current UCF 915 MHz wireless software defined radio (SDR) approach, to the newly opened avionics band at 4.3 GHz with a 200 MHz bandwidth. All the experience, approaches, and methodologies gained in the 915 MHz SDR system will provide a path forward. The Phase I prototype system will be at the requested TRL 3-4 level and a demonstration will be provided to NASA. The current UCF 915 MHz system has been fully developed and demonstrated with SAW sensors, however, the SDR system approach will software changes in hardware configuration and post-processing, such that any sensor in the operational band could be successfully interrogated. Therefore, new SAW temperature sensors at 4.3 GHzand other technologies,such as self-resonant antenna, dielectric resonator sensors or others, would demonstrate the SDR approach across multiple sensor technology platforms. To the proposers’ knowledge, an SDR 4.3 GHz sensor transceiver system has not been previously demonstrated, 4.3 GHz SAW sensor devices have not ever been demonstrated, and a cross sensor platform approachhas not been previously demonstrated. Success in the Phase I and Phase II of the proposed work would be a significant technology leap forward by making a reprogrammable SDR transceiver capable of interrogating multiple sensors, and sensor embodiments and mixed technologies.