BALSAMIC "Broadband Agile Low-cost Switches for Arrays using Microwave Integrated Circuits"

To meet the demands of the N242-090 “Low-Cost, High-Power Microwave Switches for Radar and Electronic Warfare (EW) Applications” program, the MaXentric Technologies (MaXentric) and Teledyne Science Company (Teledyne) team proposes the BALSAMIC (Broadband Agile Low-cost Switches for Arrays using Microwave Integrated Circuits) solution, which provides a low-cost, low-loss, high-power microwave switch with fast-switching speeds over large instantaneous bandwidths for radio frequency (RF) surveillance and electronic warfare (EW) applications. The team leverages Teledyne’s high voltage handling and linear Gallium Nitride (GaN) high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices and MaXentric’s high power and broadband stacked switch design techniques. During Phase I works, the team will characterize switch devices and investigate trade space for 2-18 GHz >750-W power handling and <0.3 dB loss switch circuits. Toward Phase II demonstration, the team will make a plan for developing high-power RF switch protypes for phase shifters, antenna tuners and switch-tuned filter.