Advanced Antenna Array Beamformers Navy SBIR FY2006.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2006.2 Topic No.: N06-110 Topic Title: Advanced Antenna Array Beamformers Proposal No.: N062-110-0065 Firm: Technology Service Corporation 1900 S. Sepulveda Blvd Suite 300 Los Angeles, California 90025-5659 Contact: Menachem Levitas Phone: (301) 576-2307 Web Site: www.tsc.com Abstract: Array antennas are conglomerations of many small radiating antennas, referred to as array elements. In common antenna pattern analyses the element pattern is considered to be uniform; element to element. Overall transmit or receive patterns are then described as products of two factors: the element pattern and the, so-called, array factor. Practical small array antennas may not conform to the above assumptions, since their elements may be influenced differently by their physical environments. This may cause theoretical patterns to become degraded. In this SBIR effort, TSC proposes to improve the antenna pattern performance of an existing legacy array via corrective phase and/or amplitude controls at its individual elements, through the implementation a powerful optimization technique whose effectiveness and efficiency has already been demonstrated in other antenna and waveform design applications. Though the application of this technique to the actual legacy array description and measurements, TSC proposes to demonstrate the feasibility limit of such optimization, subject to low insertion loss requirement, over narrow and wide bands, and on both transmit and on receive. Benefits: The successful application of TSC's optimization technique will allow the Navy customer to extend the life of legacy arrays, already in service, via relatively low cost fixes. It will also provide potential capability to adjust and correct array patterns in mid-life, whose performance has been degraded due to changes to platform installations in the array vicinity, or through degradation of the array itself. Return