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Analog Spectral Processors (ASP)

There exists an unmet military need for flexible, affordable, hand-held military communications systems. Programs such as JTRS and various software-defined radio efforts have attempted to address this need, but have encountered difficulty in obtaining small, high performance RF tunable filters and filter banks. The absence of these components has prevented realization of the software-defined radio concept in a form factor and with a power requirement appropriate to fielded war fighters.

The ASP program will enable software defined radios generally, and dramatically decrease the size, weight, and power requirements for handheld military communication systems.

The goal of the Analog Spectral Processors (ASP) program is to demonstrate the ability to perform substantial RF signal processing in the analog domain. Such a demonstration will carve a path to the eventual realization of handheld software defined radios by providing the core filter and switch technology needed to decrease the size, weight, and power requirements of handheld military communication systems. Specifically, the program seeks to demonstrate an RF front-end covering the 20 MHz - 6 GHz band with a projected volume less than 50 cubic centimeters (cc) and power consumption less than 5 Watts. This front-end, which will include a spectrum analyzer and 5 receive channels, will require significant component-level technical advances in the areas of high performance tunable filters and filter banks, RF switch arrays, and affordable high-performance heterogeneous integration.

In Phase I, scheduled to end in 2007, base filter and switch components will be developed. In Phase II, scheduled to end in 2008, components will be integrated into filter banks. In Phase III, scheduled to end in 2009, filter banks will be integrated with active components to realize a complete front-end. This program is scheduled to complete in 2009.