Collins Aerospace joins DARPA project to suppress RF interference with new kinds of high-frequency filters
ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers needed new RF and microwave technologies to suppress RF interference, and demonstrate these technologies for future military use. They found a solution from the RTX Corp. Collins Aerospace segment in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced a $4.5 million contract to Collins Aerospace last week for the COmpact Front-end Filters at the ElEment-level (COFFEE) Program, Technical Area 2 (TA2).
RF interference mitigation
While the COFFEE program is developing interference-mitigating RF and microwave technologies for active electronically scanned array (AESA) transmit-and-receive antennas, the project's technical area 2 seeks to demonstrate COFFEE-developed technologies in military applications.
Collins Aerospace joins the Northrop Grumman Corp. Mission Systems segment in Linthicum, Md., on the COFFEE program technical area 2. Northrop Grumman won a $4.7 million contract for this project in January.
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COFFEE seeks to suppress RF interference with a new class of high-frequency filters with low loss and high power handling. COFFEE contractors are Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Technologies Corp., Akoustis, BAE Systems, Metamagnetics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, and University of California at Los Angeles.
Collins Aerospace and Northrop Grumman engineers will seek to develop the ability of an AESA antenna to reconfigure radar beams dynamically and communicate across a range of frequencies in congested environments. This helps resist signal jamming and interception while mapping, navigating, sensing, tracking and creating high-bandwidth data links.
High-frequency filters
The COFFEE technical area 2 asks the two companies to demonstrate the newly expanded potential of COFFEE high-frequency filters technology by integrating COFFEE filters to demonstrate interference suppression in all or parts of the 2 to 18 GHz frequency range; incorporate frequencies above 8 GHz; and create RF and microwave filters with compact size and high performance.
COFFEE technical area 2 also seeks to demonstrate acceptable manufacturability of COFFEE RF filters; and develop disruption potential that departs from current practices in filter design and manufacture.
The overall COFFEE program seeks to create RF and microwave filter technology to mitigate AESA interference and enhance performance in 2 GHz to 18 GHz frequency ranges. These filters will distill signals while operating within an 18 GHz half-wavelength array pitch, and account for digital-at-every-element advances.
The primary focus of the COFFEE program is on emerging microelectronics materials for integrable filters; new classes of miniaturized resonators; millimeter-wave frequencies beyond 18 GHz; and future communications for the 5G era.
Degrading system performance
Collins Aerospace and Northrop Grumman experts will integrate COFFEE filters into systems and external components such as switches, controls, interconnects, interposers, and tuning elements that risk degrading system performance and increasing overall filter size.
The companies also will apply COFFEE filter technology currently under development. The effort will highlight technical risks, mitigation strategies, and recent innovations. Solutions that use domestic manufacturing are preferred.
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COFFEE technical area 2 is an 18-month effort, starting this year, that will validate COFFEE technologies by integrating 2–18 GHz filters with switches, controls, interconnects, and interposers into a filter tile. Several contract awards are expected. The effort will culminate with delivery of integrated filter tiles to demonstrate the potential for scalable manufacturing and interference suppression.
For more information contact RTX Collins Aerospace online at www.collinsaerospace.com, Northrop Grumman at www.northropgrumman.com, or DARPA at www.darpa.mil/research/programs/compact-front-end-filters-at-the-element-level.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
