SBIR Phase I: A 500 MHz Bandwidth, 256 Channels Correlator Chip for Radio Astronomy at Sub-Millimeter Wave Lengths

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a correlator chip intended for cross-correlation and auto-correlation spectroscopy at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths. The correlator chip to be developed will have 500 MHz bandwidth, 256 channels, and a 4-level quantization scheme. A laboratory prototype of a 32-channel correlator will be developed, fabricated, and tested in Phase I to demonstrate experimentally the feasibility and to provide the critical design information for the development of the much larger correlator chip planned for Phase II. To reach the desired level of performance, the proposed correlator chip will employ an innovative on-chip parallel processing architecture to achieve a bandwidth equal to the clock frequency. The high frequency operation will be achieved with a combination of: bit-systolic arrays, a novel family of hyperfrequency CMOS digital circuits, input/output circuits capable of operating at data rates equal to the clock frequency over controlled impedance transmission lines, and the most advanced CMOS fabrication process available through the MOSIS service ( Hewlett-Packard 0.5 m). The commercial market of correlator chips is estimated by us at $4 million in 1997, and it will grow 20% annually as many radio astronomy centers will be building focal-plane arrays. The firm's business plan is to focus on the research, development, marketing, selling, technical support, and maintenance of a family of state-of-the-art correlator chips and spectrometers with application in radio astronomy and atmospheric research. A competitive advantage is in the application of the innovative high-speed, non-saturating logic circuits to the implementation of correlator chips with superior performance-to-cost ratio.