Applied Radar Inc. recently delivered a 64-Channel Analog RF Receiver Unit (ARRU-64™) to the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. The system development was funded through an AFRL Phase-3 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract managed by AFRL at Hanscom AFB, MA, and the hardware prototype was purchased by the Air Force through a separate contract from MacAulay-Brown Inc. (MacB) in Dayton, OH.

According to Dale DeThomas, Program Manager at MacB, “This system has the potential to fill an Air Force technology need to provide a next generation capability for a wide-band, multi-channel receiver system for many radar and surveillance applications envisioned for the future.”

The prototype system is unique due to its wide 500 MHz instantaneous bandwidth and 2 to 18 GHz tuning capability. It will allow AFRL to perform experiments that will demonstrate a next-generation phased-array digital beamforming capability that is important for new radar and electronic sensing systems, according to Dr. William H. Weedon, Founder and CEO of Applied Radar Inc. Applied Radar plans to spin off several components of the ARRU-64 system as commercial products, including the Callisto™ tuners and synthesizers, which extend the tuning and instantaneous bandwidth over existing systems. The hardware employs a VME/VXS form-factor, providing four downconversion channels per single-slot 6U VME card.