GPS FREQUENCY TRANSLATOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

FOR MONITORING TRAJECTORY OF MISSILES AND PROJECTILE, THE POSITIONING DATA ACCESSIBLE FROM THE GPS SATELLITES MAY BE USED EFFECTIVELY ANYWHERE ON EARTH. FOR THIS APPLICATION, A FREQUENCY TRANSLATOR IS REQUIRED ON-BOARD TO RELAY THE SATELLITE DATA ON ANOTHER CARRIER. DESIGN APPROACHES TO MINIATURIZE THE TRANSLATOR, BASED ON EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF THE MMIC TECHNOLOGY, FOR APPLICATIONS ON SMALL PLATFORMS WILL BE INVESTIGATED. TRADE-OFF STUDIES OF AVAILABLE DEVICE TECHNOLOGIES, MMIC PROCESSING CAPABILITIES, RF PERFORMANCE, AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS, WILL LEAD TO A BASE-LINE DESIGN OF THE TRANSLATOR PACKAGE. BOTH SILICON AND GALLIUM-ARSENIDE DEVICE TECHNOLOGIES AND HYBRID MIC AND COMPLETE MMIC APPROACHES WILL BE EVALUATED. THE OPTIMUM APPROACH WILL EMERGE AS A COMBINATION OF SEVERAL DEVICES AND INTEGRATION TECHNIQUES. HITTITE MICROWAVE CORPORATION HAS A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE BASE FOR REALISTIC ASSESSMENT OF MMIC CAPABILITIES BASED ON GAAS MESFET, GAAS HBT AND SI BJT DEVICES, AND A LARGE-SCALE INTEGRATION OF RF CIRCUITS INTO A SINGLE CHIP AND/OR MODULE.