Air Force looks to Camgian Microsystems to develop radar- on-a-chip ASIC that saves power in sensor applications

摘要

Scientists at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, are sponsoring a project to develop radar-on-a-chip technology aimed at providing significant power savings for military electronic sensors, like radar and infrared cameras. The Air Force Research Lab awarded a $9.2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 3 contract to Camgian Microsystems Corp. in btarkville, Miss., to develop ultra-low-power RF transceiver application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that will integrate Camgian's low-power radar architecture with AFRL on radar-on-a-chip technology. The digital signal processing (DSP) architecture will be based on Camgian's asynchronous NULL convention logic, which provides data- driven, self-timed circuits and supports advanced power management through sub-threshold transistor operation coupled with power gating plus dynamic power supply control. By minimizing energy consumption in logic circuits during active computation, Camgian achieves power consumption levels in key DSP operations for infrared imaging systems that are 20 times lower than existing integrated circuit technologies, company officials say.