Program Summary
The A-to-I Look-Through Program will fundamentally improve the operational bandwidth, linearity, and efficiency of electronic systems where the objective is to receive and transmit information using electromagnetic (radio) waves under extreme size/weight/power and environmental conditions required for DoD applications. This will be achieved by developing new electronic processing subsystems methods and architectures based on new understandings of mathematical principles and embedded signal processing. This program will develop ultra-wideband digital RF receivers based on A-to-I converter (AIC) technology. AICs will loosen the traditionally rigid tradeoff of frequency coverage against dynamic range in digital receiver applications using a family of novel mathematical algorithms and representations known as compressive sampling. Compared to conventional RF receivers based on a mixture of RF down converters and conventional analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) or the emerging generation direct digital receivers also based on ADCs, AIC-based designs will increase receiver dynamic range and frequency band of regard while reducing power consumption and size. AIC designs will be efficient, reducing or eliminating the need for post-sensing digital compression, reducing data glut and minimizing bandwidth for transmission downlinks and/or data storage. RF receiver system prototypes suitable for a variety of challenging DoD application areas will be developed and demonstrated in a brass board form factor under realistic RF environments. Likewise, simultaneously achieving high operational bandwidth, linearity, and efficiency of high power transmitter amplifiers has remained a significant technical challenge. These limitations of current art power amplifier technology have resulted in well documented instances of electronic fratricide. The A-to-I Look-Thru program will overcome these limitations by converting digital signals directly to high power RF analog signals, thus eliminating the traditional high power amplifiers that are limited by the tradeoffs between bandwidth, output power, efficiency and linearity.