Award Data

A radiation-hard, 1064-nm sensitive, single-photon-sensitive avalanche photodiode (APD) detector with photon detection efficiency (PDE) and dark count rate (DCR) superior to state-of-the-art Geiger-mode APDs, and with two orders of magnitude faster maximum count rate (MCR) will be developed. Geiger APDs are constrained by a fundamental tradeoff between DCR and MCR: if the APD is cooled to reduce D ...

The mitigation of mainlobe jamming is essential to missile defense radar performance. Applied Radar is currently investigating distributed aperture and adaptive processing architectures that promise a new generation of advanced radar performance. Our proposed program will research the application of these distributed aperture radar techniques to determine the mainlobe jammer suppression possible w ...

The design and development of phased-array radars requires the integration of solid-state components and adequate thermal mitigation within the array lattice constraints. The current trend is towards increasingly planar designs and a reduction in the array depth. The MDA SPEAR program is one example in which a planar T/R “tile” architecture is utilized. System-on-a-chip technologies such as Si ...

The objective of this project is to develop a novel expander that can increase the efficiency of cryocoolers for IR sensors at very low temperatures and in remote cooling and across gimbal applications. Miniature Thermoacoustic Expanders (MTAE) that employ high energy acoustic waves generated with no moving parts at the cold expander to produce efficient cooling over a wide range of temperatures a ...

To provide the Airborne Laser (ABL) precision ranging and 3-D track refinement capability for the next generation active ranging system (NGARS), Voxtel will develop an avalanche photodiode (APD) receiver. Unlike the original ARS, which uses a 10.6 µm CO2 laser, Voxtel’s InGaAs-based ARS receiver is designed for high-speed photon counting between 1.0 – 1.6 µm. Operation in the short-wave infr ...

The detection and classification of reentry vehicles in the presence of jammers and clutter is a very important missile defense radar problem. High resolution, wideband adaptive beamforming (ADBF) is an important solution component in which both the transmit and receive beamforming weight vectors are dynamically updated to optimize performance in a time varying jammer and clutter environment. An i ...

This proposal will address the development of digital receivers and exciters capable of supporting > 1 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth (IBW). The technology will be used in large scalable BMD radar arrays employing a digital waveform generator and digital receiver at the analog input/output of each subarray panel. The receivers/exciters include the necessary up/downconversion and local oscillator c ...

In the proposed Phase II effort, Applied Radar, Inc. will develop a wideband scaleable digital beamforming (DBF) processor capable of supporting > 1 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth (IBW). The new patented hardware architecture paradigm developed in Phase I is scaleable in the number of input channels, the number of output beams, and bandwidth. Hence, it is directly applicable to large BMD radars su ...

Our missile defense capability crucially depends on radar performance to detect, track and discriminate hostile targets. New radar designs being developed offer enhanced capability. However, a significant impediment to the deployment of these new radars is the high cost of active electronically scanned arrays (AESAs) and in particular the antennas upon which they are based. Together with our inter ...

The objective of this program is to demonstrate and miniaturize a new type of cryogenic expander, thermoacoustic expander (TAE), for space cryocoolers which provide the cooling power less than 50 mW and operate in the low temperature range between 40K and 10K for cooling SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR surveillance and interceptor systems. TAEs employ high energy acoustic waves generated with absolutely no m ...