HYPRES Receives More Than $2 Million In SBIR Phase II Plus Contracts From The U.S. Department of Defense

Elmsford, NY, Feb 1: HYPRES, Inc., a leading developer of superconducting microelectronics (SME) technology, has received more than $2 million through SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Phase II Plus modifications to existing contracts from the United States Army.  The additional SBIR Phase II Plus funding allows HYPRES to further develop and enhance its SME technology for SATCOM and JTRS applications.

HYPRES is harnessing the power of SME technology to provide the DoD with the industry’s first All-Digital Transceiver (ADT). When completed, the ADT will be capable of digitizing received radio signals directly from the antenna without analog pre-processing and digitally combine and pre-distort outgoing signals at RF frequencies.  Most current radios require amplification, filtering and conversion of the incoming analog signal to an intermediate frequency (IF) before digitization by the radio modem. Analog pre-processing of the received signal and the analog processing of the transmitted signal often account for the majority of the radio cost—even Software Defined Radios—while also limiting overall system performance.

“The All Digital Transceiver represents an increase in radio performance, flexibility and efficiency, compared to the semiconductor-based subsystems in today’s military communication systems,” explained Richard Hitt, president and CEO of HYPRES. “Through a series of SBIR projects, we are developing the components necessary to support the production of the complete All-Digital Transceiver. These components include A-D and D-A converters, linearizers, correlators, cryocoolers, cryopackaging, and interface electronics.”

Breakdown of the SBIR Phase II Plus awards are as follows:

A 12-month Phase II Plus award of $493,943 to further enhance the compact cryocooler and develop critical cryopackaging components, including a rugged, compact multi-stage closed-cycle refrigerator.  Under the terms of the original contract, HYPRES is working together with a major cryocooler vendor to design, develop and test a cost-effective compact cryocooler prototype that meets JTRS and SATCOM size, weight, and power requirements.

A 12-month Phase II Plus award of $449,993 to develop and integrate a multi-chip linearizer. Under the terms of the original contract, HYPRES is working to design, develop and test Digital Predistortion devices capable of interfacing with wideband power amplifiers capable of supporting JTRS and SATCOM waveforms.

A 12-month Phase II Plus contract of $449,996 to develop distributed amplifiers that will be used in the SME Direct Digital Synthesizer. Under the terms of the original contract, HYPRES is working to design, develop, and test a Direct Digital Synthesizer circuit for JTRS and SATCOM applications.

A 12-month Phase II Plus award of $449,999 to develop a second-order band-pass sigma-delta analog-to-digital conversion modulator.   Under the terms of the original contract, HYRPES is developing an advance X-band All-Digital Receiver capable of direct digitization of a 500 MHz wide signal with an approximate center frequency of 7.5GHz.

A 12-month Phase II Plus award of $225,000 to initiate development of a high speed, on-chip digital switch to enable complex multi-GHz digitization schemes. Under the terms of the original contract, HYPRES is working to design, develop and test an L-Band Digital Predistortion MCM for Link-16 and other communications applications.

“We’re very excited about the positive reaction in the DoD to our rapidly maturing SME technology,” said Hitt. “It’s additional confirmation in our belief that the power of all digital RF architecture represents revolutionary advancements and opportunities in defense communication systems”
 

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