Broadband, lightweight, low profile passive phased array

There is an urgent, growing demand for versatile, lightweight, low profile, phased arrays to be utilized on advanced ISR platforms. These arrays can be employed for accurate determination of the direction of arrival of emitted signals and for detection of weak signals in noisy environments. The array may be used with lens systems having many channels or with digital receivers with fewer channels that incorporate advanced beamforming algorithms (i.e. MUSIC). It is imperative that these arrays be extremely broadband and very lightweight to allow expanded time on station. Spectra Research has prepared an aggressive plan to develop these advanced arrays. The objective of the Phase II program is to apply the validated Phase I methodology to develop, fabricate and test a prototype array that meets the design goals. The broadband, steerable, low profile, passive phased array will provide improvement over fielded designs in weight, depth, aperture efficiency, response linearity, and will be configured for deployment on various ISR platforms. The prototype is to provide instantaneous dual polarization coverage over the full frequency band for interface with a specified receiver system.