Line-of-Sight (LOS) Low Probability of Detection/Intercept (LPD/LPI) Millimeter Wave Communication

Dynamically frequency-tunable phased array communications in the millimeter-wave regime could provide unprecedented levels of control in the ability to provide high data rate electronic communications while maintaining covert operations (LPI/LPD) by tuning around existing atmospheric absorption lines. Herein, PSI proposes to leverage newly developed technology for the creation of optically generated, routed, sampled, and processed millimeter wave transmit and receive phased arrays to realize communications links in this band in form factors amenable to millimeter-wave communications deployment. The proposed solution will provide unique capabilities for real time acquisition and tracking to maintain link performance, by utilizing the unique properties of the optically sampled phased array to simultaneously access all available beams that can be formed by the array at once. This approach also enables widely tunable frequency generation with broadband data encoding and phasing using optical modulation techniques, which yield extremely wide instantaneous bandwidths in a very small form factor. Leveraging existing development programs and system prototypes, PSI will retire key risk aspects of this approach under Phase I, paving the way for build of an operational prototype under a potential Phase II effort.