Ultra-Broadband, High Dynamic Range Receiver System

Range testing of new airborne military electronic systems is quite costly in terms of the test-range facilities, equipment, and operations. Broadband RF collection systems are needed to record wide swaths of the relevant Electromagnetic Environment (EME) so that these Systems-Under-Test can be cost-effectively and accurately tested in a lab setting. Because of the wide frequency range, a large dynamic range over the whole recorded instantaneous BW is needed. We propose to build a new cutting-edge receiver platform system that can provide a large BW over a maximized frequency range, with maximized dynamic range. Such a design effort will require advances in RF systems engineering, integration of the latest ADC's, and more advanced DSP on the backend. Furthermore, the solution needs to be scalable, so that as recording disks improve, and as ADC chips get faster and faster, the system design can accommodate the latest technologies without a full and costly system re-design.