Radiation Hardened Interceptor Communications

Wireless transmission in the IFICS must overcome several technical challenges. These include radiation tolerance, wide temperature range, high mechanical stress, as well as constraints on size, weight, and power. Additional obstacles include nuclear effects, jamming, as well as the possibility of being intercepted. In this effort Toyon Research Corp. has teamed with Kansas State University (KSU) to provide a wireless transceiver that is specifically targeted to the needs of IFICS applications. Our solution includes a radiation-hardened radio frequency IC (RFIC) and provides a wide range of operating frequencies in the lower UHF band. The RFIC is an RF to digital solution, thus offering very high integration. Our candidate waveform is based on frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) with frequency shift keying (FSK). Both robust and proven, the waveform will provide both anti-jam as well as fast synchronization, necessary to mitigate fading. The waveform will be targeted to a Xilinx field programmable gate array (FPGA); this solution offers a path to radiation hardening and also provides for a range of interfaces and reconfiguration to be supported. The proposed micro reconfigurable transceiver (MiRT) could support existing mission needs and also provide the framework for a new generation of MDA system concepts.