ACT MODULAR CHANNELIZER

THIS PROPOSAL DESCRIBES A PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FREQUENCY CHANNELIZER AND PROCESSOR FOR ESM, ECM, COMMUNICATIONS, OR SURVEILLANCE APPLICATIONS. THIS SYSTEM IS BASED ON THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGY OF ACOUSTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT (ACT) WHICH ALLOWS THE FUNCTIONS OF FILTERING, DELAY, DETECTION, AND SWITCHING TO BE PERFORMED ON A SINGLE GALLIUM-ARSENIDE CHIP. THE PROPOSED PHASE I PROGRAM SEEKS TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY AND PROJECT THE PERFORMANCE OF AN ACT MODULAR CHANNELIZER/PROCESSOR WHICH USES A SERIES OF MODULAR ELEMENTS OPERATING IN PARALLEL TO COVER A FREQUENCY RANGE OF UP TO 720 MHZ WITH 3 MHZ RESOLUTION. IN ADDITION TO CHANNELIZING THE SIGNALS, THIS SYSTEM ALSO DETECTS THE ACTIVITY IN EACH CHANNEL AND SENDS THE VIDEO OUTPUTS TO A CONTROLLER WHICH EXAMINES THE VIDEO OUTPUTS AND SELECTS THE DESIRED CHANNEL BY SETTING AN RF SWITCH. THE POWER OF ACT TECHNOLOGY IN THIS ARCHITECTURE IS THAT THE ORIGINAL INPUT SIGNAL IS PRESERVED FOR DOWNSTREAM ANALYSIS DURING THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS, WHICH OFFERS THE SPEED OF ANALOG PROCESSING AND THE FLEXIBILITY OF DIGITAL PROGRAMMABILITY.