SBIR Phase I: Digital In-Phase and Quadrature Converter for Wide-Band Digital Beamforming

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*** ABSTRACT 9660720 Kaplan This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a multi-chip superconducting digital beamforming (DBF) system for ground station communications with satellites. DBF leads to a significant improvement in communication systems performance by enhancing the reception of signals from a number of specific directions. The increase in performance will lower the power required of satellite transmitters, thereby reducing payload weight. The novel digital communications technology under investigation enables beamforming for wide-band and spread-spectrum communications signals, which cannot be performed by present narrow-band systems. The reliance on digital rather than unclog components ensures higher signal fidelity and signal-to-noise. During the Phase I project, a Digital In-Phase and Quadrature converter (DIQC) will be developed for the proposed beamforming system. The digital IQ circuit will avoid the imbalances in gain, phase, and time delay experienced by conventional communications and RADAR systems. The digital signal processing elements for the DIQC circuits will utilize Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) multipliers, accumulators, and other arithmetic logic circuits. These circuits have already been successfully demonstrated at HYPRES at multi-gigahertz frequencies. The multi-chip DBF system developed in Phase II will subsequently be commercialized in wide-band digital beamforming communications and RADAR systems, with bandwidths up to 2.5 GHz at carrier frequencies up to 20 GHz. Commercial applications of the technology under development include wide-band narrow-beam satellite communication links, secure communication systems, multi-functional conformal antennas arrays for surveillance, intercept, and tracking. The digital signal processing functions developed in this program will benefit any application limited by processing speed, such as commercial spectrum analyzer and digitizer instruments, as well as digital electronic warfare s ystems. ***