This research focuses on radio frequency (RF) sensors for naval surveillance applications, including surface, shipboard and air. Interest spans the electromagnetic spectrum from HF through mmW, including active and passive, organic as well as distributed RF sensing approaches, including an emphasis on RADAR.
Interest includes, but is not limited to:
- Sensor and distributed RF architectures
- Antennas
- Polarization
- Isolation
- RF components
- Filters
- Exciters
- Signal sources/waveform generators
- Beamforming
- Lightweight structures
- Sensor thermal and power management
- Signal processing
- Interference mitigation
- Spectrum sharing
- Advanced manufacturing approaches
- Modular open system architecture (MOSA) functional allocation and interfaces
Emphasis is on enabling and transitioning affordable solutions satisfying challenging (size, weight and power) SWAP-C constraints without sacrificing advanced performance at RF frequencies from microwave through millimeter wave, in either an organic or distributed approach, and in harsh natural or manmade environments.
Research Concentration Areas
- Development of wideband, multifunction active aperture arrays
- Improvement of solid state device parameters including: switching speed, power efficiency, bandwidth, noise, dynamic range, linearity, packaging, miniaturization, assembly and robustness to dense signal environments
- Advanced signal processing for target detection, tracking and identification
- Distributed RF sensor approaches
Research Challenges and Opportunities
- Performance
- Operation in harsh natural and manmade environments
- Bandwidth
- Packaging and architectures that support SWAP-C constrained platforms
- Affordability
How to Submit
For detailed application and submission information for this research topic, please refer to our broad agency announcement (BAA) No. N0001425SB001.
Contracts: All white papers and full proposals for contracts must be submitted through FedConnect; instructions are included in the BAA.
Grants: All white papers for grants must be submitted through FedConnect, and full proposals for grants must be submitted through grants.gov; instructions are included in the BAA.