Wearable High-power Microwave Exposure Sensor

The objective of this DHA SBIR program is to develop a small, lightweight, zero-power detector card that can indicate the maximum RF power level exposure in frequency bands from UHF through Ka-band. NanoSonic will work with university materials science and RF researchers at Penn State and Virginia Tech to design, fabricate and demonstrate the performance of ink jet printed patch antennas and microstrip waveguides that irreversibly change their electrical properties and visible color in response to levels of incident RF energy. Magnetodielectric antenna substrate materials fabricated by Penn State will be used to reduce antenna size over the entire required frequency range. This will allow fabrication of an array of detectors indicating exposure power level in multiple frequency bands to be displayed on a single card that fits into a standard M4 magazine pouch. During Phase I, we will demonstrate the performance of the RF power level detectors at S-band and X-band using available high-power RF equipment at NanoSonic and Virginia Tech to demonstrate initial feasibility. The performance of the reduced-size antennas will be evaluated using NanoSonic’s benchtop instrumentation and in an indoor RF anechoic chamber/antenna range. Phase I deliverables will include reports and prototype RF power level detector hardware.