Aerospace & Defense Technology - August 2021 - 34

Tech Briefs
Run Time Assurance
prehensive documentation, customer
collaboration over contract negotiation,
and responding to change over
following a plan. It has been instrumental
in modern software development
and will certainly play a role
going forward with the development
of autonomy.
Additionally, DevOps is the revoluSurrogate
Test
Platforms
Live-VirtualConstructive
Open
Systems Architecture
Four Components for Autonomy Test Execution
provided as tools for facilitating the
needed planning and analysis capabilities
for autonomy test. Within this paradigm,
the goal is to adapt existing
practices and modify to facilitate a spiral
test and evaluation strategy of autonomy.
The
second paradigm features a
more dramatic shift from the current
test practices to one that incorporates
the principles of Agile and DevOps.
The Agile philosophy emphasizes individuals
and interactions over processes
and tools, working products over comtionary
concept that integrates the
development and operation functions
of an organization. This process relies
on continuous integration, continuous
delivery, continuous monitoring
and logging, microservices, and collaborative,
cross-functional teams to
implement high-quality products,
quickly. As the Air Force begins to
adopt more of the Agile and DevOps
principles, it will be able to realize
the DoD's goals of " delivering at the
speed of relevance, " " organize for innovation, "
and " streamline rapid, iterative
approaches from development
to fielding. "
This work was done by Riley A. Livermore
and Avery W. Leonard for the Air
Force Test Center. For more information,
download the Technical Support
Package (free white paper) at www.
aerodefensetech.com/tsp under the Unmanned
Vehicles & Robotics category.
AFRL-0305
Ka-Band Front-End Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits
(MMICs) and Transmit/Receive (T/R) Modules Testing
Gallium nitride monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology has superior performance
in power amplifier applications, as well as for low-noise amplifiers with high dynamic range and the
ability to survive large, potentially damaging input power levels without the need for additional
limiters at the system level.
Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland
T
he US Army Combat Capabilities
Development Command Army Research
Laboratory (ARL) has been
evaluating and designing efficient
broadband high-power amplifiers for
use in sensors, communications, networking,
and electronic warfare (EW).
ARL submitted designs of Ka-band
low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), power
amplifiers (PAs), and transmit�receive
34
Intro
Cov
(T/R) switches using Qorvo Inc.'s
high-performance 0.15-µm gallium
nitride (GaN) fabrication process.
These amplifiers were fabricated as
one- and two-stage designs, as well as
integrated T/R modules for bidirectional
transceivers as part of a recent
ARL Qorvo Prototype Wafer Option
(PWO), which yields many different
designs from two full 4-inch GaN
www.aerodefensetech.com
ToC
+
-
wafers. This research documents testing
and analysis of these designs, as
well as lessons learned for improvements
to future design efforts.
The key component for a Ka-band
transceiver is the LNA, which, when
implemented in GaN, has the added
advantages of high dynamic range and
robust survivability to high-power interference
signals. These LNAs were deAerospace
& Defense Technology, August 2021
A
µ
È

http://www.aerodefensetech.com/tsp http://www.aerodefensetech.com http://www.abpi.net/ntbpdfclicks/l.php?202108TBNAV

Aerospace & Defense Technology - August 2021

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