N131-006 TITLE: Direct Digital Radio Frequency (RF) Conversion Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM)

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Information Systems, Ground/Sea Vehicles, Sensors, Electronics

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-272

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 advanced all digital Electronic Attack (EA) Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) system minimizing Radio Frequency (RF) component technology that will reduce size/cost/complexity and increase capability and effectiveness through wider bandwidth.

DESCRIPTION: Recent advancements in high speed signal processing technology offer the possibility for significant efficiency of EA DRFM systems. Direct Digital conversion of RF signals has the potential to reduce DRFM size, power consumption, and unit cost.

Typical DRFM technology utilize an RF translation to baseband, Radio Frequency (RF) sampling, storing digitized samples into memory and then reversing the process to reconstruct the RF signal prior to transmission to the victim radar. This allows for both time domain and frequency domain manipulation of the radar signal. The Direct Digital RF Conversion DRFM would eliminate the RF signal translation modules of conventional architectures. In addition, this will reduce size and power requirements by significant margins. The per unit price reduction would allow for multiple parallel DRFM architectures capable of simulating emerging threat DRFM systems that threatens US radar systems.

The goal of the project is to develop a DRFM architecture utilizing direct RF to digital conversion to simultaneously respond to multiple radars across a broad spectrum of RF frequencies. The innovative aspect is to advance direct RF to digital conversion technology to simultaneously cover more than three (3) octaves of frequency while minimizing spurious harmonics and RF through put delay.

Improvements and design advancements resulting from successful execution of this project will result in: A simplified DRFM design; reduced unit cost (target 40%); increased reliability (increase by a factor of 10), capability (2-18 GHz in a single miniaturized platform) and effectiveness (Multiple radar responses in a miniaturized platform); reduced size - UAV/subscale drone applications (Projected size reduction of 35%); reduced prime power requirement (Projected power reduction of 40%); and allow for multiple parallel DRFM chip sets that would follow advancing threat DRFM capabilities against new US radar systems. In addition, this would provide a test asset for the development and testing of radar electronic protection systems.

Currently fielded DRFM systems built by commercial vendors, such as KOR Electronics, build airborne DRFM systems that cover at most only 1.4 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The size of these systems are 11" x 6.5" x 4.75" and the units can draw as much as 125 Watts of power.

PHASE I: Determine the feasibility for sampling and digitizing the signal directly at microwave frequencies. Determine the feasibility for digitally reconstructing the signal at microwave frequencies and add digital deceptive modulation techniques. Develop a system design approach and establish the associated requirements for implementing a lab bench prototype for testing in a Phase II effort. Generate a cost analysis detailing how direct digital conversion technology may reduce costs to produce and maintain these DRFM systems.

PHASE II: Develop and build a lab bench prototype Direct Digital RF Conversion DRFM. Perform bench tests in order to demonstrate/validate the fundamental digital technology versus present day analog technology.

PHASE III: Finalize and build a flight capable production prototype and perform airborne tests in order to validate the technology in an actual environment. Transition the technology to appropriate platforms.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Potential Dual Use in support of both DoD and Homeland Security. This project will provide a self-protect jamming capability for use on airborne platforms.

REFERENCES:
1. Stearns S.D. & Hush D.R., (1990). Digital Signal Analysis (2nd Ed.). Prentice Hall

2. Parssinen A, (2010). Direct Conversion Receivers in Wide Band Systems (The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science). Springer

3. KOR Electronics website. http://www.korelectronics.com/products/drfm/

KEYWORDS: DRFM; sampling and digitizing; digital deceptive modulation techniques; direct microwave to digital conversion; electronic protection; electronic attack.

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

DoD Notice:   Between 16 November, 2012 through 16 December 2012, you may talk directly with the Topic Authors (TPOC) to ask technical questions about the topics. Their contact information is listed above. For reasons of competitive fairness, direct communication between proposers and topic authors is not allowed starting 17 December, 2012, when DoD begins accepting proposals for this solicitation.

However, proposers may still submit written questions about solicitation topics through the DoD's SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS), in which the questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted electronically for general viewing until the solicitation closes. All proposers are advised to monitor SITIS (13.1 Q&A) during the solicitation period for questions and answers, and other significant information, relevant to the SBIR 13.1 topic under which they are proposing.

If you have general questions about DoD SBIR program, please contact the DoD SBIR Help Desk at (866) 724-7457 or email weblink.