Advanced Transmitter and Receiver (T/R) Module Technology For Space Radar

Today’s high-performance radars rely on electronically steered arrays made of thousands of radiating elements with a Transmit/Receiver (T/R) module connected to each element. The power dissipation in amplifiers, both the receiver low-noise amplifier and the transmitter power amplifier, determine the mass and volume for the individual T/R module. One critical design goal for T/R module, therefore, is the maximization of the power-added efficiency (PAE) of the amplifiers and obtaining the maximum gain and minimum noise figure for the low noise amplifier while at the same time reducing the DC power needed to obtain this RF performance. Hittite has demonstrated M-HEMT amplifiers for improved efficiency, and developed integration techniques for T/R modules using those amplifiers. The proposed program will be focused on expansion of the scale of integration to achieve the enhanced performance of the T/R module in fully integrated T/R modules for space applications and testing/evaluation/space qualification methods for such integrated modules.