Innovative Technologies for Miniaturized Affordable Battlefield Hardened Proximity Sensor

Phase IV systems has worked on a variety of radar systems that have relied on Doppler processing to perform their function. Recently this approach has been applied to radar fuzes and seekers meant for missile applications. This work has made various commonalities apparent and opened the door to the development of a common processing architecture that would allow for these powerful techniques to be available to miniature sensors needed for artillery type fuzing applications. In addition to powerful digital processing capabilities new concepts in antenna reconfiguration to perform spatial processing have recently shown promise and will enhance multifunction next generation applications. It is the expectation that this effort would focus on two areas with four major tasks: 1) The generalization of the Doppler processing for use with existing FMCW or Bi-Phase coded radar waveforms. 2) Adaptive antenna feed networks. 3) Sample implementation of the generalized processor to evaluate ASIC and commodity processor trade. 4) An example fuze design similar to a M782 form factor will be developed that shows compatibility of the chosen new processor and with existing components. During the option phase a demonstration would be performed using existing electronics with the enhanced antenna switching network.