N101-059 TITLE: Ultra Wide Bandwidth High Dynamic Range Digital ISR Receivers for the submarine force

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: AN/BLQ-10A(V) Submarine SIGINT Collection Suite -- ACAT III

RESTRICTION ON PERFORMANCE BY FOREIGN CITIZENS (i.e., those holding non-U.S. Passports): This topic is "ITAR Restricted." The information and materials provided pursuant to or resulting from this topic are restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120 - 130, which control the export of defense-related material and services, including the export of sensitive technical data. Foreign Citizens may perform work under an award resulting from this topic only if they hold the "Permanent Resident Card", or are designated as "Protected Individuals" as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). If a proposal for this topic contains participation by a foreign citizen who is not in one of the above two categories, the proposal will be rejected.

OBJECTIVE: Develop an innovative Ultra-wideband (>20 GHz instantaneous processing Band Width (BW)) high dynamic range (>75 dBm) radar wideband subsystem that cannot easily be captured by Continuous Wave (CW) signals, dense environments or complex emissions.

DESCRIPTION: The current radar wideband subsystem of the AN/BLQ-10 A(V) SIGINT suite is based on Instantaneous Frequency Measurement (IFM) /Digital Frequency Discriminator (DFD) technology and is easily "captured" by CW, extremely high duty cycle signals or very dense environments. The ability of this system to perform against very complex emitters is degrading.

While bits and pieces of technology solutions exist in various stages of development, no total engineering solution exists. Consequently, an innovative, extremely wideband system must be developed to provide 100% Probability of Intercept (POI) in today�s dense and complex environment without providing ambiguous or erroneous reports. The total SBIR project will provide a solution that has improved the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) (> 500 hour improvement), reduced the total vertical footprint (< 12 U total), cut power and weight by over 1/3 the current subsystem, and, finally, reduce the recurring cost of the Radar Wide Band (RWB) subsystem by at least 20%.

The current signals that are problem sets are: extremely short and extremely long pulse width (PW) signals (PW�s less than 30 nanoseconds and greater than 512 microseconds wide); signals with Pulse Repetition Interval (PRI) agilities (staggers � greater than 64 positions, jitters � greater than 40%, discrete jitters � greater than 64 positions, micro-jitters, switch and dwells, and pulse code modulation); signals with Frequency agilities (intra-pulse Frequency Modulation (FM) (linear and non-linear FM, phase coding), and inter-pulse FM (jitters, multi-tone, pulse to pulse frequency shifts, switch and dwells, and phase code modulation); solid state transmitters, multi-beam signals, electronically scanned emissions, and emissions showing agility in multiple simultaneous dimensions.

Because of the environment the submarine operates in, extremely high dynamic range is crucial especially as systems operate over extremely large bandwidths. Maintaining sensitivity requirements in the presence of powerful emitters mandates dynamic ranges greater than 75 dB. When operating in the presence of strong signals the wideband detection systems must still detect the low power emissions.

PHASE I: Develop a conceptual design for a hardware and software approach for showing a 100% POI Design that has an instantaneous RF bandwidth of greater than 20 GHz with a multi-tone dynamic range of greater than 75 dB. This concept must operate in an environment that requires a pulse throughput of greater than 5 million pulses per second.

PHASE II: Design, Fabricate and test a lab demonstration of the hardware and software mechanism designed in Phase I. Testing must be performed under controlled real world conditions.

PHASE III: If successfully demonstrated in Phase II, develop and install the demonstration asset on a submarine for at sea testing and demonstrations. If successful and evaluated at a TRL of 7 or higher this capability will be transferred into the AN/BLQ-10 (V) as part of the Program of Record (POR).

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: Harbor surveillance for homeland security and law enforcement surveillance are possible commercial applications of such devices.

REFERENCES:
1. Fundamentals of Statistical Signal Processing, Vol. 1; Prentice-Hall, Steven M. Kay, 1993

2. HTTP://www.SharpEye.biz/sharp/index.php

3. The Beginnings of Solid State Radar, Hyltin, T.M.; IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Volume 36, Issue 3, Part 1, July 2000 Page(s):1016 - 1019

4. R. Wiley, The Analysis of Radar Signals, 2nd ed. London, U.K.: Artech House Press, 1993

KEYWORDS: electromagnetic propagation; radar narrow band; radar wideband; compressive receivers, delay lines

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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