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

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种相关器芯片，用于毫米和亚毫米波长的互相关和自相关光谱。 待开发的相关器芯片将具有500 MHz带宽、256个通道和4级量化方案。 一个32通道相关器的实验室原型将在第一阶段开发、制造和测试，以实验证明其可行性，并为第二阶段计划的更大相关器芯片的开发提供关键的设计信息。为了达到预期的性能水平，拟议的相关器芯片将采用创新的片上并行处理架构，以实现等于时钟频率的带宽。 高频操作将实现与组合：位脉动阵列，一个新的家庭的超高频CMOS数字电路，输入/输出电路能够在数据速率等于时钟频率的控制阻抗传输线，和最先进的CMOS制造工艺可通过MOSIS服务（惠普0.5米）。 据我们估计，1997年相关器芯片的商业市场为400万美元，而且由于许多射电天文中心将建造焦平面阵列，它将以每年20%的速度增长。 该公司的业务计划是专注于研究，开发，营销，销售，技术支持和维护一系列最先进的相关器芯片和光谱仪，用于射电天文学和大气研究。 一个竞争优势是在创新的高速，非饱和逻辑电路的应用，以实现相关器芯片与上级性能成本比。

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.