FA8650-18-S-1671-Atch4.pdf

FA8650-18-S-1671

Attachment 4

Radio-frequency Intercept by Photonic-assisted Threat Identification, Disaggregation, and Extraction (RIP TIDE)

Statement of Objectives (SOO)

18 April 2018

1. Background:

In order to maintain situational awareness and counter electro-magnetic (EM) threats in real time, the U.S. Air Force is interested in collecting, categorizing, identifying and countering electronic signals.

Historically, most signals of interest have been tightly packed at frequencies ranging from the VHF (30–300 MHz) through the Ku band (12–18 GHz). However, recent work in high-frequency microelectronics has resulted in both low-noise and high-gain power amplifiers that operate in the K (18–27 GHz), Ka (27–40 GHz), V (40–75 GHz), and W (75–110 GHz) bands. Applications such as automotive radar and WLAN technologies have resulted in the commercialization of high-frequency commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies that are widely available around the globe. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) 14 July 2016 decision to allocate spectral bands around 28, 37, 39, and 64–71 GHz for commercial applications will likely result in the increased proliferation of additional COTS microelectronics components and systems capable of operating in spectrally diverse radio frequency (RF) environment within the continental US (ConUS). Future systems are not likely to use static, narrow-band, or simple signaling and are instead expected to rely on agile provisioning, complex channel modulation and very wide instantaneous bandwidths coupled with burst-mode operation that will be difficult to capture using today’s technologies.

The widespread availability of these COTS components will spawn the generation of custom solutions.

Having such a wide range of spectral regions over which to operate will improve the trade-space available to engineering teams designing new classes of products. This will result in both new services and a dramatic blurring between traditional fiber-optic-based telecommunications and wireless networks. The proliferation of such advanced RF signaling presents a challenge to the DoD’s ability to maintain situational awareness. The widespread availability of the associated new technologies will be easily translated to offensive EW systems that cannot be conceived of today. The frequency bands over which information will need to be acquired and analyzed will increase multiple fold in the near future, with dramatically lower latency and processing requirements.

There are a number of potential solutions to address this challenges. While electronics have followed Moore’s law for decades, this important rule is breaking down as transistor gate dimensions approach the atomic scale. Faced with these physics limits, strict restrictions on speed and thermal dissipation surfaced decades ago, which led to the breakdown of Dennard Scaling. Today these design limitations, when using purely silicon components, constrain the realistic design space for all-electronic systems such that they cannot cover the entire spectrum of interest in a low-latency manner. Microwave photonics, on the other hand, has long promised an alluring solution to system engineers seeking to operate over multiple frequency bands. This advantage is due primarily to the small bandwidth taken up by RF signals when compared to an e.g. 192-THz (1550-nm) optical carrier;

even a 100-GHz wide signal would constitute only a small (100GHz/192THz) ~ 0.05% fractional bandwidth. Still, producing real-world solutions based on microwave photonics has proven elusive for most researchers over the last several decades, in large part due to the loss and distortion encountered during the transformation between electrical and photonic domains. Equally important, the overall performance of such microwave photonic systems is negatively impacted by large noise figures when compared to purely electronic solutions. Recent work in photonics has led to the ubiquitous proliferation of photonic COTS components, which enables end users to construct systems that can rival the performance of traditional electronic solutions. To achieve these goals, it is insufficient to simply implement direct analogs of existing electronic system using photonics elements. Instead, one must devise new classes of architectures that specifically use electronics and photonics components in places where these provide superior performance. This trend is recognized in new integrated photonics platforms that can now be used to create complex optical circuits naturally connected with Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) electronic control and backplanes, often on the same substrate.

2. Objective:

The objective of this program is to develop and demonstrate prototype electronic-photonic systems proving advanced capabilities when compared to the current state-of-the-art all-electronic solutions.

Work will focus on areas in which hybrid electronic-photonic solutions provide a competitive advantage and include: the capture of signals over an ultra-wide frequency range with a large instantaneous bandwidth and effective number of bits (ENOB); the realization of large “effective” bandwidth solutions; the rapid analysis of wide-frequency signals; solutions which exploit photonics to realize low-latency capabilities; the ability to both stare, self-cue, and analyze/process. Prototypes developed will be subjected to a variety of clearly outlined tests. The proposed tests should demonstrate capabilities relevant to DoD interests. Solutions should also provide these capabilities despite the practical limitations associated with the performance of existing, non-ideal, constituent photonics components. Finally, the demonstrated capabilities should be repeatable in different operating environments and within the envelope of existing manufacturing/assembly tolerances.

3. Scope:

The scope of this effort covers all hybrid photonic-electronic systems seeking to capture, digitize, extract, disaggregate, analyze and synthesize signals in either the time or frequency domains. Within scope are efforts that involve the physical realization of one or more novel system topologies that are reduced to practice through the development of prototype technologies whose performance can be validated experimentally. Associated modeling of the systems can be researched in order to reduce technical risk.

Of interest are technologies that are readily manufacturable, meaning the system can be produced at some level of volume without sacrificing performance or resorting to off-shore manual assembly. In addition, a realistic path for deployment should be addressed where the fact that deployable technologies must be able to meet strict size, weight and power requirements. This leads to an emphasis being placed on integrated photonic circuits and/or solutions that have a near-term path toward photonic integration platforms. For COTS-based solutions, a legitimate path towards photonic integration should be highlighted. Finally, the anticipated ITAR nature of this applied research also lends itself to a focus on solutions that can be realized in the U.S. The Air Force’s overall goal is to pursue novel solutions that leverage U.S.-based resources including integrated photonics foundries and packaging solutions such as those provided by AIM Photonics

(http://www.aimphotonics.com/).

4. Technical Areas/Objectives

The objectives for this effort are to execute applied research and modeling, development, fabrication, and testing in one or both of the technology areas described below. Specifically, the proposed work should result in a prototype system able to advance the state-of-the-art with respect to what can be done today. This work should highlight the use of photonics and hybrid photonic-electronic solutions where it provides an advantage over traditional systems. Proposals must address no more than one technical area. If an organization intents to submit proposals in both areas, separate proposals are required.

Regardless of Technical Area, systems of interest include but are not limited to:

• Synthetic, real-time oscilloscopes

• Spectrum analyzers with the ability to cover a wide spectral range and the ability to rapidly change their resolution while acquiring both phase and amplitude

• Signal pre-processors and processors, with emphasis on speed, power dissipation and their ability to operate in harsh environments

• Systems demonstrating low-latency for novel applications that may benefit from the technologies noted above but address different objectives

Technical Area 1: Systems based on Integrated Photonic Circuits (IPC)

Objective: The objective of Technical Area 1 is to leverage the growing field of integrated photonic circuits. To date, integrated photonic circuits have primarily been used to create products in the telecom, datacom and sensors sectors. While any proposal in the general area of microwave photonics is of interest, particular focus will be devoted to efforts whose input and output is electronic. In particular, solutions that synthesize a superior system intended to address signal intercept and extraction over wide bands are strongly desired.

Program Structure and Milestones http://www.aimphotonics.com/

TA1 will have a 21-month base period of technical performance followed by 3 months to prepare a final report. Proposals must provide measurable, quantitative milestones at the conclusion of the effort. All proposals should provide a technical rationale for proposed program milestones and a clear trajectory to achieving program goals.

TA1 will focus on demonstrating a functional prototype system that addresses the objectives of this topic. Although the prototype is required to be realized using an integrated photonic circuit, not all components need to be integrated onto a single platform. Success will be determined by demonstration of enhanced performance. This will be shown through both simulation as well as experimental measurement. A path to complete integration of the system will also be instrumental.

Technical Area 2: Systems based on legacy COTS and/or augmented with novel components

Objective: TA2 efforts should develop hybrid electronic–photonic systems based on discrete components. This technical area is envisioned to provide a lower risk and lower cost option to prove out a system design/topology using discrete components before seeking to explore an integrated photonic solution. Proposers to TA2 should address how their designs could be realized on an integrated platform in the future to improve the cost, size, weight, and power of the resulting capability without sacrificing performance. Specifically, new architectural research is encouraged in order to reduce both the cost and timeframe associated with prototyping unproven designs using multiple integrated photonic fabrication runs. The results are expected to lead to system topologies that will be amenable to fully monolithic implementations in the future. The end goal is to demonstrate a system which has superior performance when compared to a traditional state-of-the-art system or to demonstrate an entirely new type of system whose performance cannot be bested by an all-electronic implementation.

Program Structure and Milestones

TA2 will have a 21-month base period of technical performance followed by 3 months to prepare a final report. Proposals must provide measurable, quantitative milestones at the conclusion of the effort. All proposals should provide a technical rationale for the proposed program milestones and a clear trajectory to achieving program goals.

TA2 will focus on demonstrating a functional prototype system that addresses the objectives of this topic. The goals are to demonstrate a prototype system using discrete components. Success will be determined by the demonstration of enhanced performance, with a robust system topology as well as one with a reasonable size, weight, and power. This can be shown through both simulation as well as experimental measurements. The description of a creditable path to realize this system on an integrated platform in the future is instrumental.

5. Deliverables

Data shall be delivered in accordance with BAA Attachment 3, DD Form 1423-1, Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL), dated 21 November 2017. All hardware/software developed as part of this effort will be delivered as proposed.

• Prototype System(s) – For TA1 performers, a prototype system will be delivered to the government within a month of the end of the technical effort. The final deliverable will remain property of AFRL at the end of the effort

• System Demonstration – Regardless of Technical Area, a demonstration of device operation for the government team is required.

6. Security

General OPSEC procedures, policies and awareness are required in an effort to reduce program vulnerability from successful adversary collection and exploitation of critical information. OPSEC will be applied throughout the lifecycle of the contract. The Critical Information List (CIL) will be provided upon request by the AFRL/RYOY Information Protection Office. While working on the government installation OPSEC will be provided by the AFRL/RYOY Information Protection Office.

Despite the practical objectives of this work, the use of photonics to address these applications is still largely unproven and all efforts will be unclassified. In particular, all proposals must be unclassified.

Nevertheless, efforts are expected to be subject to ITAR due to the requested focus on DoD interest.

7. Safety Plan

Comply with all federal, state, and local safety and environmental regulation.

Obtain an approved safety plan, in accordance with Air Force Instruction 91-202 Air Force Research Laboratory Supplemental 1, before any experiment may be conducted outside of a laboratory environment.

Comply with system safety requirements contained in MIL-STD 882E, Section 4, “General Requirements” for any deliverable systems or hardware. Identify safety-critical components of those systems or hardware, and software interfaces with those components. Test and verify the safety-critical hardware and software for safety acceptance.

8. Schedule

The schedule for the completion of the proposed objectives is 24 months. Specifically, the technical period of performance of 21 months with 3 additional months to complete the final report.