Superconductor Sensitive High Dynamic-range Receiver

Superconductor analog-to-digital converters (ADC) offer discriminating advantages in both bandwidth and fidelity due to very high sampling rates and quantum-accurate digitization based on counting of magnetic flux quanta. Multiple digital-RF receiver systems incorporating superconductor ADCs have been in operation for over four years in field-ready configurations at Government laboratories. We propose to develop heavily oversampled lowpass ADCs to deliver extremely high dynamic range in the low-end of the radio frequency spectrum. This will be accomplished by simultaneously advancing the quantizer resolution and sample rate using newly available advanced fabrication process nodes. In addition, we propose advanced digital signal processing techniques to further improve signal-to-noise ratio. Complete digital-RF receivers, incorporating these new lowpass ADCs, will be developed and delivered in Phase II Option.