Wideband Scalable Multi-channel Digital Receiver/Exciter (DREX)

The United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is searching for a software-defined multi-channel radar receiver/exciter that would provide improved performance and added flexibility over currently deployed radar systems. In response, MaXentric is proposing a system codenamed ACERR (Advanced Coherent Exciter/Receiver Radar). The ACERR system is composed of a hierarchy of analog front-ends, high-speed digitizers, FPGAs, and Manycore processors that can be reconfigured and scaled to fit the requirements of individual applications. The architecture lends itself to want to find the coherence across multiple wideband channels. This enables characterization of the effect of amplitude/phase imbalance on the performance of radar waveforms. ACERR will benefit the MDA with its high degree of flexibility in allowing many different radar algorithms as well as different beamforming structures, which will in turn greatly enhance ACERR equipped radar systems in their ability to acquire, track, and identify ballistic missile threats.