Economical, Multi-Use Software-Defined Radio Capability at Ku-Band and Above

In response to Army SBIR A19-079 solicitation titled “Economical, Multi-Use Software-Defined Radio Capability at Ku-Band and Above”, the MaXentric and Dr. Fathy team proposes the WISER Box (Wideband Intelligent Software-defined Economical Radio) system, which is a cost-effective multi-channel transceiver covering VHF to 100 GHz with > 450 MHz instantaneous bandwidth. The system features development of a wideband upconverter and downconverter custom chip fabricated using an advanced SOI CMOS process and implementation of SDR control functions into high-speed digital FPGA processors. MaXentric has multiple millimeter-wave products, such as DARPA Mobile Hotspot transceiver, and several SDR projects. The MaXentric IC team has successfully developed and is developing multiple microwave / millimeter-wave Silicon and GaN ICs under DARPA MPC program and DoD SBIR programs. Dr. Fathy is an expert in millimeter/microwave component design and SDR research. During Phase I, MaXentric will perform a trade-study to determine the best wideband mixer architecture, baseband processor, and adjustable LO chain. The most important design metrics are tuning range and bandwidth at this stage. In Phase II, MaXentric will develop a plan to make a prototype system of the wideband SDR capable of tracking the VHF to 100 GHz range.