Wide-Band Arbitrary Waveform Generator (WAWG)

ABSTRACT: We propose to design, test, and build an arbitrary waveform generator based on a novel direct digital synthesizer (DDS) approach. Our design is grounded in prior work but introduces several novel techniques for achieving the large dynamic range required by the Air Force at low power and low noise. In the proposal we have provided a preliminary survey of relevant silicon and semiconductor technologies and have selected the most promising to provide a preliminary system architecture design. Early in the Phase I we will elicit additional input from the Air Force technical monitor and will update the design as appropriate. The proposal identifies technical risks associated with the DDS approach in general and provides specific approaches for addressing those risks as part of the circuit design. We compare the requirements of the solicitation to results achieved in prior work by our team and published by others in the open literature. The initial application focus will be on the telemetry application, but we describe how the technology developed under this proposal fits into a wider portfolio of technology including both communications and radar. BENEFIT: Digitally generating highly complex wideband waveforms at the highest possible frequency instead of down near baseband would considerably reduce the transmit architecture in terms of size, weight and power requirements as well as cost. This will have impact on the telemetry problem posed by the solicitation by allowing small, power constrained vehicles to transmit complex waveforms, which, in turn, will allow more data to be transmitted on any given amount of frequency spectrum.