FROM RF TO BITS WITH SYNTHETIC BEAMFORMING

A Synthetic Beamforming antenna was built for Airborne Telemetry. Low-Noise Blockconverters translated RF to IF suitable for direct analog-to-digital conversion. Then all telemetry functions were performed digitally via parallel FPGAs for 10 independent sources. Monopulse tracking and optimal diversity combination was performed using 4 antenna quadrants at two orthogonal polarizations. Novel estimation approaches drove digital demodulation, symboland bitsynchronization. Final telemetry outputs include: digital, analog (video), and analog IF (e.g., for downlink relay). This program has incubated several concepts that we believe have the combined potential to significantly improve the future of telemetry.