W-band Transmitter

ABSTRACT: The significance of the 71-76 and 81-86GHz frequencies cannot be overstated. The 10 GHz of spectrum available represents by far the most ever allocated at any one time, representing 50-times the bandwidth of the entire cellular spectrum. With 5 GHz of bandwidth available per channel, gigabit and greater data rates can easily be accommodated with reasonably simple radio architectures. With propagation characteristics comparable to those at the widely used microwave bands, and well characterized weather characteristics allowing rain fade to be understood, link distances of several miles can confidently be realized. Our goal in Phase II is bring the benefits of solid-state amplifiers to the W-Band while achieving the better performance than the TWT amplifiers. The benefits that we will bring to W-Band amplifier design with our solid-state approach include the realizable small size and weight you can obtain with a MMIC design even with power combining. Our amplifier will weigh on the order of ounces and be less than a cubic inch in size. A further advantage of our approach is the ability to combine the final amplifier. The achievable power capability for our amplifier combined in unit cells is over 500W. BENEFIT: For unmanned systems, video data constitutes the only"eyes-in-the-sky"and thus the only link that a ground crew may have with what is actually going on in the vicinity of an unmanned air vehicle. A ground crew hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away, the video data link becomes absolutely critical to the safety and success of the mission. The W-Band Transmitter will solve these problems and meet the market needs. The W-Band transmitter is uniquely suited for higher bandwidth communication for multi-senor video streams and more complex command and controls.The 2012 budget for UAV predator and reaper modifications is approximately $325 million and from $475 million to $550 million for each remaining year of this decade. It is anticipated that a portion of these budgeted funds will be for SATCOM communication with the new WGS satellites, thus incorporating new W-Band transmitter into preexisting UAVs.