Highly Adaptive Millimeter Wave Transceiver System

To address the U.S. Army's need for high-bandwidth, compact, wireless, millimeter-wave intra-missile datalink, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a novel, Highly Adaptive Millimeter WavE (HAMWE) transceiver system that can communicate data rates over 2 Gbps in crowded multipath intra-missile environment. This short-range communication system, built on a unique integration of industry-leading millimeter wave (~60 GHz) integrated circuits and application-specific adaptive beamforming algorithms dynamically controlling an ultra-wide band directional 3D fractal antenna array, provides uninterrupted, duplex, low-BER non-line-of-sight communication channels, free of any mechanically steered and moving components. The innovative HAMWE system will be a miniature system-in-package (SiP) ruggedized device with integrated micro wafer level chip scale circuits, mounted on a ceramic powder-filled and woven microfiberglass-reinforced PTFE composite microwave substrate. In Phase I, POC will develop a TRL-3 board-level transceiver prototype embedded into a 7 in. tube, resembling the original Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), to demonstrate in-hardware feasibility. Simulation results and hardware testing will lead to a final paper design of the link to be developed in Phase II. We anticipate that at the end of Phase II, the SiP HAMWE prototype will reach TRL-5 and be ready for initial testing at the JAMS PMO.