Direct Digital Radio Frequency (RF) Conversion Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM)

As EW needs to be smaller, lower power, and higher performance, there is a strong push by the US Government to create new technologies to achieve the ever changing goals of our future warfighters in the EW battlespace. With clocking speeds of digital devices encroaching tens, if not hundreds of gigahertz, the opportunity to create a Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) exclusively from these components is upon us and the benefits of higher performance, wider operational bandwidths, lower cost and extremely high reliability are the additional anticipated benefits of this US Navy SBIR topic. As Radio Frequency Simulation Systems (RFSS) matures and begins fielding this technology through the support of the USN at Pt. Mugu, the need for expensive and bulky wideband RF converters and their associated agile frequency schemes will fade away. RFSS, the winner of the Phase I topic and selected for the Phase II program, is a subject matter expert and supplier of DRFMs and DRFM based systems including jammers and radar test equipment. The innovative approach developed by RFSS will be discussed against the backdrop of currently fielded technology showing the benefits of the Direct to Digital DRFM approach for the US Government and EW industry.