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Analog to Information (A2I) Sensing for Software Defined Receivers

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Navy
Contract: N68936-09-C-0128
Agency Tracking Number: N092-106-0237
Amount: $149,979.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N092-106
Solicitation Number: 2009.2
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2009
Award Year: 2009
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2009-09-25
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2010-11-26
Small Business Information
650 5th Street Suite 505
San Francisco, CA 94107
United States
DUNS: 119301831
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 James Coward
 President
 (415) 977-0553
 j.coward@saphotonics.com
Business Contact
 Michael Browne
Title: VP of Product Development
Phone: (408) 348-4426
Email: m.browne@saphotonics.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Radar Warning Receivers (RWRs) are an integral part of Tactical Aircraft Protection Systems and are used to quickly detect imminent threats so that countermeasures or other actions can be used to avoid attack. Threat Radar signals include pulsed Doppler signals with typical carrier frequencies from 2-40 GHz with the possibility to extend to even higher. An ideal RWR would be one based on the concept of a Software Defined Receiver (SDR), in which all key receiver algorithms are implemented in some form of programmable device. However, a significant limitation of a SDR based RWR is that the received RF signal must be sampled with an A/D converter which limits the usable bandwidth of a SDR to roughly 2 GHz. The relatively new field of compressive sensing is based on the notion that the information content of a signal may be much less than its instantaneous bandwidth, and that this signal “sparseness” can be exploited directly during the sensing operation. When applied to the sampling of wideband Radar signals, compressive sensing can allow Radar signals to be sampled well below the Nyquist rate, allowing COTS ADC devices to be used as a front end to a flexible software defined Radar Warning Receiver. This Phase 1 program will extend compressive sampling to the area of signal parameter estimation in order to detect and parameterize unknown received Radar signals over the entire Radar bandwidth from 1-100 GHz with a single ADC front-end receiver.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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