Co-Site Interference Mitigation in Phased Arrays
Navy SBIR FY2010.1


Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2010.1
Topic No.: N101-104
Topic Title: Co-Site Interference Mitigation in Phased Arrays
Proposal No.: N101-104-0290
Firm: FIRST RF CORPORATION
4865 Sterling Drive
Boulder, Colorado 80301
Contact: P. Kelly
Phone: (303) 449-5211
Web Site: firstrf.com
Abstract: The number of antennas on military vehicles has been steadily increasing as enhanced communications continue to provide our warfighters a significant battlefield advantage. The limited space on the submarine sail requires the co-location of phased array apertures in a single antenna housing structure to provide capabilities in the desired frequencies of interest. The close proximity of the transmit and receive arrays has created a formidable cosite challenge. FIRST RF solves this problem with several approaches that involve simple electromagnetic techniques as well as aperture techniques. For example, an affordable radome appliqu� is proposed to solve the cosite interference problem. This solution does not require changes to the array elements or support electronics. This panel integrates with the existing antenna housing structure and minimizes side lobes and energy directed from the transmit array toward the receive array. Minimization of this coupled energy enables the receive array to perform in the presence of an operating transmit array. FIRST RF has relevant cosite mitigation experience that will be leveraged to achieve an optimal solution. Through the Phase I program, FIRST RF will prove the viability of this technology to successfully provide a phased array cosite solution.
Benefits: The proposed technology solves a problem which continuously plagues military vehicles. The application space is not limited to only submarine masts, however. Any vehicle with a high density of RF applications from a small space or volume could benefit tremendously from this. For example, aircraft carriers and other vessels, aircraft, and even fixed site antenna installations all suffer from RF cosite as the number of radiators increases. The proposed technology is a simple, affordable and robust solution to the cosite problem.

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