ACOUSTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT BASED EW SUBSYSTEMS

THE ACOUSTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT (ACT) DEVICE IS A RELATIVELY NEW COMPONENT, FABRICATED IN MONOLITHIC FORM ON GAAS, THAT OFFERS TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL FOR CURRENT/FUTURE SIGNAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS. BECAUSE OF ITS NEWNESS, LITTLE SYSTEMS APPLICATION WORK HAS BEEN PERFORMED TO-DATE. THE AREAS OF GREATEST POTENTIAL ARE IN RADAR, SONAR, AND PARTICULARLY, ELECTRONIC WARFARE (EW). IN ORDER TO EXPLOIT THIS DEVICE FULLY, SYSTEM DESIGN WORK MUST BE UNDERTAKEN TO DEVELOP CIRCUITS AND SUBSYSTEMS THAT CAN BE REALIZED EVENTUALLY IN A FULLY MONOLITHIC FORM. IT IS PROPOSED THAT THE ACT DEVICE BE ANALYZEDFROM A EW SYSTEMS APPLICATION VIEWPOINT AND ALL PERTINENT CHARACTERISTICS ADDRESSED SO THAT SEVERAL KEY BUILDING BLOCK DESIGNS CAN BE EVOLVED, AIMED AT A PHASE II FABRICATION EFFORT. MEMORY AND FILTERBANK APPLICATIONS ARE CHOSEN AS TWO OF THE MOST POTENTIALLY REWARDING AREAS OF EXPLOITATION. KNOWLEDGE GAINED ON PREVIOUS ACT EFFORTS WILL BE BROUGHT TO BEAR AND PAST CONTACT WITH EDI, THE FOREMOST ACT DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY, WILL ASSIST IN GAINING ACCESS TO THE CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART IN ACT DEVELOPMENT. PRELIMINARY DESIGNS DEVELOPED FOR PAST APPLICATION PROVIDE A STARTING POINT FOR THE PROPOSED EFFORT, SAVING TIME AND YIELDING AN EXCELLENT JUMPING-OFF POINT FOR A PHASE II FOLLOW-ON.