Development of Novel Phase Shifterless RF Phase Array Antenna Systems

Tahoe RF"s will develop"BeamDirect,"a phased array beam forming & beam steering system which incorporates the LO Phase Shifting technology developed during the Phase I activities. The system will perform as a broad band phase array antenna receiver from 100 MHz to a 6 GHz in conjunction with a circular broadband antenna. This system will provide exceptional SNR and BER and is targeted to improve it by as much as 12 dB over current systems. The system will be designed, partitioned and implemented on up to three ICs or Chips. The configuration of these chips in the system is determined by the end application and system integration issues. In each of these configurations, the three chips or modules being developed are: 1. BeamDirect LO Generation Chip 2. BeamDirect Front end Chip 3. BeamDirect Receive Chip During the phase 2, Tahoe RF will complete the system design of the"BeamDirect"system and will then design of BeamDirect LO Generation Chip, which incorporates the technology developed in Phase 1. BeamDirect will be implemented as a compact and highly programmable monolithic beam-steering solution for circular antennas which will significantly enhance SWaP (Size, Weight & Power) metric of such a system.