Cover photo: SCaN testbed under GRC 

thermal vacuum testing.
—I—

NASA’s mission to pave the future of space exploration through innovations 

in science and technology is reflected in a balanced technology development 

and maturation program supported by all NASA Mission Directorates. 

Stimulating technology innovation through Small Business Innovation 

Research (SBIR)/Small business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs, NASA 

has empowered U.S. small businesses to make significant contributions to 

the future of space exploration.

This technology investment portfolio highlights SBIR Phase I and Phase II 

investments in software defined radio (SDR) technology development for 

the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD)/Human Exploration and 

Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) from 2005 to 2012. This report 

summarizes technology challenges addressed and advances made by the 

SBIR community in SDR technology. The goal of this document is to encourage 

program and project managers, stakeholders and prime contractors to take 

advantage of these technology advancements to leverage their own efforts 

and to help facilitate infusion of technology advancements into future NASA 

projects. A description of NASA’s SBIR Program can be found at www.sbir.

nasa.gov.

Foreword
—II—

Small Busin

Innovation Resea
—III—

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program provides opportunities for small, high 

technology companies to participate in Government sponsored research and development efforts in 

key technology areas of interest to NASA. The SBIR Program provides significant sources of seed 

funding to foster technology innovation. The SBIR Phase I contracts are awarded for 6 months with 

funding up to $125,000; Phase II contracts are awarded for 24 months with funding up to $750,000. 
—IV—

Human Exploratio
—V—

The Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) is chartered with the development 

of core transportation elements, key systems, and enabling technologies required for beyond-low Earth 

orbit (LEO) human exploration that will provide the foundation for the next half-century of American 

leadership in space exploration.

This new space exploration era starts with increasingly challenging test missions in cislunar space, 

including flights to the Lagrange points, followed by human missions to near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), 

moon, the moons of Mars, and Mars as part of a sustained journey of exploration in the inner solar 

system. HEOMD was formed in 2011 by combining the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) 

and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) to optimize the elements, systems, and 

technologies of the precursor Directorates to the maximum extent possible. 

HEOMD mission goals include: key technology developments in Space Communications and Navigation, 

Space Transportation, Human Research and Health Maintenance, Radiation Protection, Life Support 

and Habitation, High Efficiency Space Power Systems, and Ground Processing/ISS Utilization. 

HEOMD looks forward to incorporating SBIR developed technologies into current and future systems 

to contribute to the expansion of humanity across the solar system while providing continued cost 

effective space access and operations for its customers, with a high standard of safety, reliability, and 

affordability. 

and

Operations Mis

Directorat
—VI—

SCaN: Keeping t

SCaN Notional Integrated Network Archite
—VII—

Universe Connec

Program and Technology Development 

The Space Communications and Navigation Program (SCaN) resides within HEOMD and is responsible for the development of 

technologies and capabilities to support all current and future NASA missions. The SCaN Program provides the communication, 

navigation and mission science data transfer services that are vital to the successful operation of NASA space flight missions. To 

accomplish this, SCaN operates three networks: the Deep Space Network (DSN), the Near Earth Network (NEN), and the Space 

Network (SN). Combined together, the services and network assets provide capabilities which enable space exploration for 

over 100 NASA and non-NASA missions. SCaN also provides scheduling services to new missions through Network Integration 

Management Office (NIMO) and Deep Space Network Commitment Office (DSNO). 

To accomplish the above, the SCaN Program’s vision is to build and maintain a scalable, integrated, mission support infrastructure 

that can evolve to accommodate new and changing technologies, while providing comprehensive, robust, cost effective, and 

exponentially higher data rate services to enable NASA’s science and exploration missions. Today NASA communication and 

navigation capabilities using Radio Frequency technology can support spacecraft to the fringes of the solar system and beyond. 

The anticipated new missions for science and exploration of the universe are expected to challenge the current data rates of 300 

Mbps in LEO and of 6 Mbps at Mars to rise significantly. The SCaN Program aims to

•	 Develop a SCaN infrastructure capable of meeting both robotic and human exploration mission needs. 

•	 Evolve infrastructure to provide the highest data rates feasible. 

•	 Develop internationally interoperable data communications protocols for space missions. 

•	 Offer communications and navigation infrastructure for lunar and Mars surfaces. 

•	 Offer communications and navigation services to enable lunar and Mars human missions.

SCaN technology development interests include optical communications, advanced antenna technology and Earth stations, 

cognitive networks, access links, reprogrammable communications systems, spacecraft positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), 

and communications in support of launch services. Innovative solutions to operational issues are needed in all of the areas. 

Emphasis is placed on size, weight and power improvements. All SBIR technologies developed under SCaN Topic area are aligned 

with the SCaN Program technical directions.

This document catalogs SCaN SBIR investments in Software Defined Radio Technology development from 2005 to 2012.
—VIII—

SBIR Phse I
—IX—

Conte

Software Defined Radio Technology 1

Software Defined Radio Technology SBIR Phase I Awards (2005 to 2012) 3

Reconfigurable Computing for Dynamically Reprogrammable Communications 4

WW Technology Group (2005)

Reconfigurable/Reprogrammable Communication Systems 5

Hittite Microwave Corporation (2005)

A Hardware/Software Design Environment for Reconfigurable Communication Systems 6

BINACHIP, Inc. (2005)

Reprogrammable Radiation Tolerant Secure Network Access Module 7

Aeronix, Inc. (2006)

Multi-Mission μSDR 

Toyon Research Corporation (2006)

Stackable Radiation Hardened FRAM 9

NxGen Electronics, Inc. (2006)

Low Power, Small Form Factor, High Performance EVA Radio Employing Micromachined Contour Mode

Piezoelectric Resonators and Filters .

Harmonic Devices, Inc. (2006)

Low Power Universal Direct Conversion Transmit and Receive (UTR) RF Module for Software Defined Radios 11

Space Micro, Inc. (2007)

Software Defined Common Processing System (SDCPS) 12

Coherent Logix, Inc. (2007)

Software Defined Multiband EVA Radio 13

Lexycom Technologies, Inc. (2007)

Low Phase Noise Universal Microwave Oscillator for Analog and Digital Devices 14

VIDA Products (2008)

Reconfigurable, Cognitive Software Defined Radio 15

Intelligent Automation, Inc. (2008)

Multi-Cluster Network on a Chip Reconfigurable Radiation Hardened Radio .

Microelectronics Research Development Corporation (2008)

Reconfigurable RF Filters 17

Space Micro, Inc. (2008)

Architectures/Algorithms/Tools for Ultra-Low Power, Compact EVA Digital Radio 18

UniRF Technologies, Inc. (2008) 
—X—

SBIR Phse I

Continue
—XI—

Reconfigurable EVA Radio with Built-In Navigation Capability 19

Intelligent Automation, Inc. (2008)

Reconfigurable Ultra-Low Power Miniaturized EVA Radio 20

Teranovi Technologies (2008)

Fault Tolerant Software-Defined Radio on Manycore 21

MaXentric Technologies (2009) 

Reconfigurable VLIW Processor for Software Defined Radio .

Aries Design Automation, LLC (2009)

Miniaturized Digital EVA Radio 23

Bennett Aerospace, LLC (2009)

RF Front End Based on MEMS Components for Miniaturized Digital EVA Radio 24

AlphaSense, Inc. (2009)

Development of a Novel, Ultra-Low SWAP, RAD-Tolerant, Multi-Channel, Reprogrammable Photonic Integrated

Circuit Optical Transceiver Module 25

Space Photonics, Inc. (2010) 

Radiation Hard Electronics for Advanced Communication Systems 26

ICs, LLC (2010)

Reconfigurable/Reprogrammable Communications Systems 27

Pacific Microchip Corporation (2011)

High Performance ADC for Reconfigurable/Reprogrammable Communication Systems 28

Ridgetop Group, Inc. (2011)
—XII—

SBIR Phse I
—XIII—

Contents (Conti

Software Defined Radio Technology 1

Software Defined Radio Technology SBIR Phase II Awards (2005 to 2012) 29

A Hardware/Software Design Environment for Reconfigurable Communication Systems 30

BINACHIP, Inc. (2005)

Multi-Mission μSDR .

Toyon Research Corporation (2006)

Stackable Radiation Hardened FRAM 32

NxGen Electronics, Inc. (2006)

Miniaturized UHF, S-, and Ka-band RF MEMS Filters for Small Form Factor, High Performance EVA Radio 33

Harmonic Devices, Inc. (2006)

Reconfigurable, Cognitive Software Defined Radio 34

Intelligent Automation, Inc. (2008)

Fault Tolerant Software-Defined Radio on Rad-Hard Multicore .

MaXentric Technologies (2009)

Reconfigurable VLIW Processor for Software Defined Radio .

Aries Design Automation, LLC (2009)

RF Front End Based on MEMS Components for Miniaturized Digital EVA Radio 37

AlphaSense, Inc. (2009)

Radiation Hard Electronics for Advanced Communication Systems 38

ICs, LLC (2010)

Company Names .

SBIR Points of Contact 42
—XIV—

Software defined Rad

Technolog
—1—

NASA seeks novel approaches in reconfigurable, reprogrammable communication systems to enable the vision of Space, 

Exploration, Science and Aeronautical Systems. Exploration of Martian and lunar environments will demand harsh space 

environment compatible, flexible, adaptable electronic hardware to assure survivability for long-haul missions. NASA missions 

can have vastly different transceiver demands (e.g. 1’s to 10’s Mbps at UHF and S-bands, up to 10’s to 1000’s Mbps at X, and 

Ka-bands) and available resources, depending on operating spacecraft environments. Deep space missions are often power 

constrained, operate over large distances, subsequently, offer lower data rates when compared to near-Earth or near-planetary 

missions. These demands are known prior to launch; therefore, scalability features can maximize transceiver efficiency while 

minimizing resource consumption. Larger vehicles platforms, or relay spacecrafts may provide more resources but are also 

expected to perform complex functions or support multiple and simultaneous communication links to a diverse set of assets.

Goals to achieve flexible, reconfigurable communications while minimizing cost and on-board resources require reconfigurable 

transceivers and component technologies. Topics of interest include: development of software-defined radios (SDR) or subsystems that 

demonstrate reconfigurability, flexibility, reduced power consumption in digital signal processing systems, increased performance and 

bandwidth, reduced software qualification cost, and error detection and mitigation technologies. Complex reconfigurable systems will 

provide multiple channel and multiple and simultaneous waveforms. Specific interest areas are as follows:

•	 Advancements in bandwidth capacity, lower resource consumption, adherence to standard and open hardware and software interfaces. 

Techniques should include fault tolerant, reliable software execution, reprogrammable digital signal processing devices.

•	 Reconfigurable software and firmware that provide access control, authentication, and data integrity checks of the reconfiguration 

process, allows simultaneous operation and upload new waveforms or functions. 

•	 Automated reconfiguration, allowing automated restore capability that ensures reverting back to a baseline configuration, thereby 

avoiding permanent communications loss due to an errant process or logic upset. 

•	 Dynamic or distributed on-board processing architectures, for example, demonstrate technologies to enable a common processing 

system for communications, science, and EVA health monitoring.

•	 Adaptive modulation and waveform recognition techniques to enable transceivers to exchange waveforms with other assets 

automatically or through ground control 

•	 Low overhead, low complexity hardware and software architectures to enable design reuse (e.g., software portability) to demonstrate 

cost or time savings. Emphasis is on the application of open standard architectures to facilitate interoperability among different vendors 

and to minimize operational impact of upgrading components

•	 Software tool chain methodologies that enable software modeling, code reuse, and advanced code optimization for digital signal 

processing systems 

•	 Novel approaches sought to mitigate single event effects, hence, to improve reliability. The use of reconfigurable logic devices in 

SDR is expected to increase in the future to provide on-orbit flexibility for waveforms and applications. As the densities of these 

devices continue to increase and sizes decrease, the susceptibility to single event electronic effects also increases. Techniques and 

implementation schemes to provide a core capability within the SDR in the event of a disruption of the primary waveform or system 

hardware. Communication loss should be detected and core capability (“gold” waveform code) be automatically executed to provide 

access and restore operation.

•	 Innovative solutions sought to reduce power and mass in SDR implementation. Solutions must enable hardware scalability among 

different mission classes (e.g., low-rate, deep space to moderate or high-rate near planetary, or relay spacecraft) and should promote 

modularity and common, open interfaces

•	 Advancements sought in A/D or D/A converters to increase sampling speed and resolution, novel techniques to increase memory 

densities, advancements in processing and reconfigurable logic technology, while reducing power consumption.

•	 Innovative solution in harsh environment scenario, for example, in EVA radio, to address reconfigurable technology 

Phase I deliverables are based on research to identify and evaluate candidate technology applications to demonstrate the technical 

feasibility and a path towards a hardware or software demonstration. Bench- or lab-level demonstrations are desirable.

Phase II deliverables emphasize development and demonstration of the technology under simulated flight conditions. The effort should 

outline a path towards a spaceworthy system. The SBIR contract should deliver a demonstration unit for functional and environmental 

testing at the completion of the Phase II period.
—2—
—3—

Software Defined Radio Techno

SBIR Phse I

2005 to 2012
—4—

Reconfigurable Computing for Dynamically Reprogramm

Communication

WW Technology Group

2005 Phase I

O1.06-753

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Integrates WWTG Reliable Technologies

into a Reconfigurable Environment

•	 Extends adaptive capabilities into the

domain of RC application space

•	 Establishes a foundation for software

defined radios that incorporates adaptive

processing, reconfigurable functionality,

and SEE tolerance

Technical Objectives

•	 Establish foundational architecture from which RC and WWTG software 

middleware resources support software radios

•	 Demonstrate feasibility of methodology and approach

•	 Specify the functionality of RLOs in the software radio environment

•	 Create a functional design for RLO-based prototype

•	 Specify middleware support for dynamically reprogrammable 

communications

•	 Demonstrate feasibility with a proof of concept

NASA Applications

•	 Leonardo

•	 Constellation X

•	 GMSEC

•	 Stellar Imager

•	 Leonardo

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Avionics—Integrated avionics systems

•	 Security—Buildings, borders, and MIL sensor webs
—5—

Reconfigurable/Reprogrammable Communication Sy

Hittite Microwave Corporation

2005 Phase I

O1.06-767

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Develop high data rate Reconfigurable/

Reprogrammable Transceiver (RRT)

systems with sufficient bandwidth to

support the digital rates planned for lunar

and Mars mission data requirements.

NASA/GRC has mandated a transmission

and reception data rate of ≥ 500 Mbps

for future space mission communication

applications.

•	 A miniaturized modular RRT module

allows easy conversion to other prescribed

NASA frequency bands and new analog or

digital updates/upgrades with integrated

frequency selection, scalable digital

bandwidth and digital bit precision.

Technical Objectives

•	 Design a Receiver section having integration of X-band and K-band 

downconverters with an 8-bit 1 Gsps dual ADC as well as two 12-bit 

250 MHz ADC boards

•	 Conduct electrical performance characterization of Receiver by 

acquiring I/Q and complex test and measurement data sets

•	 Measurement results show 504 Msps of instantaneous digital 

bandwidth is achievable to a precision of ≥10 effective bits by 

combining up to four 12-bit 300 Msps ADCs with a time-interleaving 

approach, and by applying linear, nonlinear and Error Vector Magnitude 

calibration techniques

NASA Applications

•	 NASA Space Science Missions and Communications from outer planets 

to NASA terrestrial facilities and/or earth orbits

Non-NASA Applications

•	 High data throughput applications where ease and cost of transporting 

large apertures is of prime importance such as natural or man-made 

disasters or combat theaters, plus industrial/commercial applications 

for high-performance digital communication systems

RRT Receiver Design Architecture
—6—

A Hardware/Software Design Environment for Recon

Communication Syste

BINACHIP, Inc

2005 Phase I

O1.06-980

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Space exploration will require

advancements in communication systems

to maintain flexibility and adaptability to

changing needs and requirements

•	 Develop automated techniques to

take software implementations of

reconfigurable communication applications

and map them to FPGAs and SOCs

•	 Reduce design times from months to days

Technical Objectives

•	 Study techniques for automatic translation of software implementations 

to RTL VHDL for mapping to FPGAs on reconfigurable hardware

•	 Investigate techniques for hardware/software co-design for 

reconfigurable hardware

•	 Apply techniques to Software Defined Radio (SDR) 

•	 Task A—Translation of software to RTL VHDL

•	 Task B—Hardware/software co-design

•	 Demonstrate prototype compiler on SDR to Xilinx Virtex II Pro SOC and 

DINI Board

NASA Applications

•	 Software defined radio, communication systems

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Embedded systems software for PDAs, cellphones, electronic design 

automation for networking, communications, digital signal processing
—7—

Reprogrammable Radiation Tolerant Secure Netwo

Modu

Aeronix, Inc

2006 Phase I

O1.05-829

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 NASA’s exploration of planetary surfaces

will require a communication architecture

that supports operational capabilities in

which assets can communicate seamlessly

and securely to coordinate exploration as

well as communicate back to Earth

•	 Solutions are need which are conformant

to the most recent version of the HAIPIS,

support reprogrammability, and employ

COTS FPGA technology to support upgrade

of new capabilities

•	 The innovation of this proposed solution

is the development of an unclassified

IP based network encryptor that is

compatible with commercially available

ground based HAIPE equipment operating

with Suite B algorithms and the ability to

operate in the presence of failures caused

by the harsh environment of space

Technical Objectives

•	 Develop a scalable space based cryptographic architecture which 

supports

– NASA networking requirements for space, lunar, and planetary 

exploration mission

– NASA requirements associated with the most recent version of the 

NSA High Assurance Internet Protocol Interoperability Specification 

(HAIPIS)

– Reprogrammability and has the capacity to support future 

algorithms, operating modes, and network protocols

– Maximizes use of COTS radiation tolerant FPGA technology while 

minimizing dependence on custom designed ASICs

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 NASA TT&C Reprogrammable HAIPE compliant IP encryptor for ground 

to satellite communications

•	 Low Power Reprogrammable IP encryptor for manned and unmanned 

lunar and planetary exploration

•	 Orbital Relay encryptor for lunar to ground transmissions

•	 DoD TT&C encryptor

•	 High speed encryptor for applications such as TSAT

•	 Radiation Tolerant encryptor for homeland security and nuclear 

applications

Graphic unavailable
—8—

Multi-Mission micro 

Toyon Research Corporation 

2006 Phase I

O1.05-902

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 The proliferation of space and terrestrial

vehicles for space exploration calls for

post flight reconfiguration in support of

multiple waveforms as well as to enable

architecture updates

•	 The vision for μSDR is to meet varying

mission needs in a low power and compact

package by leveraging the state-of-the-art

in hardware and software design

•	 Computationally tractable algorithms

•	 FPGA behavioral design tools to provide

logic reuse and reduce development time

•	 Highly integrated ICs to maximize flexibility

•	 Standards-based IO, such as Ethernet, to

provide compatibility

Technical Objectives

•	 High data rate that can scale to multiple Mbps

•	 Radiation tolerant devices suitable for space applications

•	 Open-standard data interfaces to ease integration to NASA programs

•	 Low part count to minimize size and ease qualification

•	 Identify vehicle application

•	 Candidate waveform selection

•	 Develop system architecture

•	 Baseband signal processing algorithms

•	 Develop hardware design

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Micro-satellites

•	 Autonomous ground vehicles

•	 Ground links

•	 Relatively low volume custom radio design for a variety of user specific 

applications in the DoD, emergency response, homeland security, and 

commercial sectors
—9—

Stackable Radiation Harde

NxGen Electronics, Inc

2006 Phase I

O1.05-963

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 In Phase I NEI assembled FRAM modules

from die fabricated from the previous

Phase II SBIR. The modules were subjected

to TID and SEU testing to characterize the

FRAM radiation tolerance. The first pa

results were remarkably successful. This

Phase II includes re-design of the mask

sets and re-testing. Then 2 & 8 high stack

designs will be completed and a complete

environmental and life tests conducted.

The result shouldbe a low cost 2-16 Mb

product offering based on a commercial

foundry with 2 MradTID and high S

tolerance.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 8

Technical Objectives

•	 Celis Semiconductor had previously manufactured one wafer of die 

at Fujitsu, and performed confidence testing on several die. NxGen

performed a ‘blind’build of enough packaged parts to successfully 

support the radiation test series. For Phase II, Celis will support another

spin of the FRAM design, NxGenElectronics will support radiation retesting of the re-designed silicon and compare the results to modeling 

data. NxGen would then build a number of 2 & 4 high stacks to perform

environmental tests and a reliability demonstration

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Shuttle, space station, earth sensing missions and deep space probes

Missions which will benefit are Mars Surveyor, solar system exploration 

e.g. (Titan, Europalanders, Comet Nucleus Return, New Discover

Program, and Living with a Star)

•	 Commercial applications include space platforms, both GEO and LEO 

such as the Boeing Space HS-601 and Lockheed A2100

•	 Telecommunication satellites and sensing applications (NOAA) 

require this memory to store critical data and support on board data 

processing

•	 Terrestrial applications include nuclear power plants and research 

accelerators (Fermi Lab)
—10—

Low Power, Small Form Factor, High erfor

Employing Micromachined Contour Mode Pie

Resonators and Fil

Harmonic Devices, Inc

2006 Phase I

O1.06-917

Identification and Significance of Innovation

EVA radio based on the co-design of transceiver

with high-Q micromachined RF components

•	 Drastically reduced power/volume/weight

•	 Reduced linearity requirement

•	 High performance reconfigurable,

frequency agile, fault tolerant architecture

•	 Single-chip, high-Q micro-machined piezo

RF components

– Resonators/filters

– 10 MHz to multi GHz

– Switches

– Tunable caps

Technical Objectives

Generate EVA radio circuits leveraging high-Q micro-machined contour 

components for Phase II STRS compliant implementation

•	 Co-design transceiver blocks with high-Q components

•	 Develop high-Q component-based architecture topologies

•	 Resonator/filter/tunable cap design and optimization for RFIC co-design

•	 Highly-scalable miniaturized frequency control solutions based on 

proprietary contour mode resonators spanning 10 MHz to multi-GHz on 

same piece of Si 

NASA Applications and Non-NASA Applications

•	 NASA EVA STRS radio systems

•	 Harsh environment (rad hard) operation

•	 Spacecraft and planetary surface vehicles

•	 Handheld military radios

•	 Cell phones/pagers, Wi-Fi, UWB

•	 Wideband direct waveform synthesis

•	 Ultra-low-power distributed sensor networks

•	 Tuned amps with micromachined high-Q components

•	 Interoperable first responder radios (police, fire, hazmat, Homeland 

Security, medical personnel)
—11—

Low Power Universal Direct Conversion Transmit a

(UTR) RF Module for Software Defi

Space Micro, Inc

2007 Phase I

O1.05-864

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Novel universal transmit and receive RF

module with exceptional center frequency

(UHF~35+GHz), bandwidth (Hz to >500

MHz), scales to >100 GHz

•	 Receive requires no DC input power; very

low parts count; “DAC-less” wideband

arbitrary direct to RF transmit modulator;

direct digital wideband RF power amp

•	 Practical manufacture with existing and

future technologies (GaAs, SiGe, GaN,

MEMS, Ferroelectrics); tunable left handed

meta-materials for best size reduction

•	 Easily integrated with available software

defined radio (SDR) components;

addresses NASA reconfigurable, modular

multi-mission flexibility (narrow and

wideband comms, radar) with one open

architecture RF hardware component

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 5-6

Technical Objectives

•	 Flow down system to hardware specification for UTR module identifying 

specific system(s) targeted (ie EVA, deep space, comms, radar, UWB, 

other)

•	 Detail UTR design (block diagram, schematics), analysis (system 

parametrics) and simulation. Show UTR module capabilities for

modular SDR applications

•	 Iterate UTR and identify manufacturing path, including projected 

size, weight and performance (SWAP). Validates components, space

application and capabilities

•	 Leveraging UTR system and components, explore additional 

applications in areas such as RF power amplification. Design and

analyze, define Phase II applicability

•	 Finalize UTR hardware specification: identification of all required 

manufacturing, calibration and practical manufacturing steps to provide 

Phase II hardware and demo

•	 Final report and identification of other commercial applications of 

UTR or derived UTR for military, public safety, homeland defense, 

commercial wireless markets

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 In flight reconfigurable SDR agnostic RF front end for current and future 

RF communications and radar—CEV, EVA, SDST, SGLS, STDN, TDRSS, 

lunar, point to point, networked, surface/harsh environment etc

•	 DOD software defined radio (eg JTRS, AMF, etc): terrestrial, airborne, 

naval. Electronic Warfare, C4ISR capabilities due to universal wideband

capabilities

•	 Wideband operation and low power are ideal for cognitive and mobile 

adaptive ad hoc networked (MANET) communications (802.xx) as well

as traditional commercial wireless (GSM/EDGE, CDMA, UMTS-WCDMA)
—12—

Software Defined Common Processing Sys

Coherent Logix, Inc

2007 Phase I

O1.05-873

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Enabling software defined systems

•	 Extremely-high performance

•	 Ultra-low power

•	 Unified software development environment

•	 Revolutionary reconfigurable processor

•	 Creation of SDR common processing

system

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 8-9

Technical Objectives

Phase 1

•	 Define hardware and software SDR development system requirements

•	 Determine radiation tolerant processor requirements

•	 Conceptually define full SDR development kit (HW/SW co-development 

and hardware modules)

Phases 2 and 3

•	 Design, development, and productization of SDCPS platform 

NASA Applications and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Exploration, science, and space operations systems

•	 High-reliability command, control, and safety systems (e.g. automotive

avionics, medical)
—13—

Software Defined Multiand 

Lexycom Technologies, Inc

2007 Phase I

O1.06-993

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 With lunar and planetary becoming more

and more common, the need for a highly

reliable, reconfigurable communication

system is paramount. Lexycom proposes a

design of a state-of-the-art EVA software

defined radio (SDR) that would be a part of

an advanced, incrementally expandable ad

hoc wireless network.

•	 For improved reliability and to assure

stand-alone functionality, the network

would support a real-time 3D location

using mobile-assisted navigation and

utilizing TOA/TDOA methods.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 3-4

Technical Objectives

The main goal of this proposal is to design a suitable SDR transceiver to be 

used in a lunar environment

•	 Analyze the required network functions and design suitable network 

algorithms

•	 Conduct the simulation of network performance and analyze the 

effectiveness of the selected network algorithms

•	 Design the radio transceiver’s architecture and determine the functional 

requirements for its subsections

•	 Conduct the sensitivity analysis of the proposed network

•	 Determine the suggested modes of EVA SDR’s operation to address 

different propagation and interference conditions

•	 Design and analyze the required cognitive middleware algorithms

•	 Draw conclusions, summarize the results

NASA Applications

•	 Incrementally expandable, software defined radio ad-hoc 

communications system that will provide the building blocks for all 

future planetary and navigation communication demands

Non-NASA Applications

•	 DOD training and field activities, first responder communication and 

navigation systems, mining and geological activities

One of the low power small form factor SDRs currently produced 

by Lexycom Technologies (shown model number Tiamis-800L)
—14—

Low Phase Noise Universal Microwave Oscillator

and Digital Device

VIDA Products 

2008 Phase I

O1.03-901

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Efficient uncompromising microwave

signal generation using YIG resonators

without the prior drawbacks of power

inefficiency, large size and weight,

poor yield and reliability, and high cost.

Achieved by bringing the YIG oscillator into

the latest integrated circuit technology

enabled by VIDA products recent

developments.

Expected TRL range atthe end of contract

•	 2-3

Technical Objectives

•	 Preliminary design and simulation of a SiGe differential YIG tuned ring 

oscillator, which simultaneously achieves operation up to 25 GHz with 

the lowest possible phase noise and time jitter

•	 Preliminary design and simulation of a 25 GHz pre-scaler for existing 

PFD/CP/PLL

•	 Preliminary design and simulation of the components of a magnetic 

field stabilization loop to eliminate all mechanical shock and vibration 

effects

•	 Design an ultra miniature permanent magnet together with an 

electromagnet coil housing using the latest magnetic materials 

technology

•	 Test Q improvement techniques to raise the oscillator’s Q factor from 

1,000 (Typical Oscillator) to over 10,000

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Cognitive and software configured wireless communications

•	 Low cost precision radar and ranging systems

•	 Sensors using ADC with greatly improved resolution

•	 Portable test equipment with lab performance capabilities

•	 Affordable broadband communication wireless links

•	 Space qualified frequency sources with laboratory performance

•	 Ground stations data rate improvements with reduced signal strength

•	 Reduce personal microwave energy exposure with current capabilities

Graphic unavailable
—15—

Reconfigurable, Cognitive Software Defined

Intelligent Automation, Inc

2008 Phase I

O1.03-936

Identification and Significance of Innovation

Intelligent Automation Inc, (IAI) is currently

developing a software defined radio

(SDR) platform that can adaptively switch

between different modes of operation for

communication, by modifying both transmit

waveforms and receive signal-processing

tasks on the fly. High-speed analog-todigital and digital-to-analog converters along

with modern FPGAs and fast digital signal

processors allow for maximum flexibility in

digital radio design. The proposed software

reconfigurable radio implementation technique

and the system design will leverage IAI’s vast

experience in SDR, RF hardware design, signal

processing and system level firmware design.

Key innovations of the proposed effort are

•	 Reconfigurable digital transceiver/

waveform synthesizer design using high

speed FPGA

•	 Multi-mode radio functionality and scalable

architecture.

•	 Soft-processor based controller and

flexible user control to enable on the fly

radio configuration.

•	 Cognitive capabilities like Adaptive

modulation and Automatic Modulation

Recognition (AMR)

•	 Complex modulation and bandwidth

efficient waveform implementation

capability

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 6

Technical Objectives

•	 Generate justified system designs and engineering guidelines. This

will be accomplished by arranging kickoff meetings with the NASA 

technical personnel

•	 Demonstrate transmit waveform diversity and implementation of 

several candidate digital receiver architectures

•	 Demonstrate flexible user control and on the fly radio reconfiguration 

capabilities

•	 Implementation of cognitive capabilities in the software radio. We

visualize adaptive modulation and AMR to be of general interest in 

the software radio community. Hence we will explore these areas and

demonstrate these capabilities in the proposed software radio

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Arbitrary wideband waveform synthesizer

•	 Reconfigurable radar transceiver with multi-mode capabilities

•	 Cognitive radios

•	 Configurable telemetry and ranging radios

•	 Lab based software radio test-bed

•	 Extra Vehicular (EVA) radios for space applications
—16—

Multi-Cluster Network on a Chip Reconfigurable R

Hardened R

Microelectronics Research Development Corporation (2008) 

2008 Phase I

O1.03-943

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 To support a wide range of throughputs

over adverse conditions requires

reconfigurable baseband processor radio

communications systems, trading off long

range or lower power versus throughput.

Some communications require adaptation

in the presence of jammers or noise. Communication systems based on MIMO OFDM

can be reconfigured to meet a wide variety

of requirements for range and throughput.

OFDM in particular has proven to be a

robust system in the presence of multi-path

fading, Doppler shift due to vehicle motion

or variations in the multipath channel. With

MIMO OFDM, the system can be trained

to support multiple Modulation Coding

Schemes (MCS) that tradeoff throughput

for range and enhanced diversity. The

proposed Network on a Chip with clusters

of 2D Grids of networked primitive agents

addresses the task of supporting a wide

variety of MIMO OFDM configurations.

By shutting down primitive agents and

their routes, the system can scale down

power and throughput. In addition, damaged agents can be identified and isolated.

Agents are targeted for SEU immunity and

the switching fabric and routing links are

radiation hardened by design so that the

reconfigurable radio can meet the challenges of space born operation.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 3-4

Technical Objectives

•	 Phase I objective is to architect, model and simulate the multi-cluster 

Network on a Chip (NoC) in RTL with SystemC to demonstrate digital 

signal processing flow requirements for 1 Gbps radio communication 

based on MIMO OFDM modulation. The NoC microarchitecture will be

developed based on multiple clusters: (1) down conversion and FIR 

filtering, (2) implementation of AGC, packet detection, and variable 

length FFTs, (3) CORDIC cluster which implement the MIMO equalizer

The MIMO equalizer, SVD beamforming and space time coding will be 

developed and simulated in SystemC (RTL). The reconfigurability of the

NoC based Radio will be verified using SystemC at the RTL level

•	 The work plan includes mapping a 4x4 MIMO OFDM to a cluster of 2D 

Grids of networked agents, verifying the mapping through modeling 

and the simulation of the architecture in SystemC. In addition, the work

plan includes tasks to simulate reconfiguring of the radio to support 

high throughput and to switch to high diversity for long range and lower 

throughput for power savings. The work plan includes modeling the

impact of SEU and SET on the reconfigurable radio and the immunity 

gained by radiation hardening of agents with associated tradeoffs 

in chip speed and area. Finally, the high speed links will be modeled

in Spice for the IBM 90nm processes to assess power and area 

requirements of the switch fabric

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 The key algorithm mapped to the architecture is 4x4 and 4x5 MIMO 

OFDM systems. The system can handle high throughput, can scale

down power, and can serve the needs of base stations for the lander 

and meet the low power and range requirement for rovers. The

reconfigurable NoC based radio has a huge commercial application and 

will directly compete with successful array-based reconfigurable radios 

in the MIMO-OFDM base station market

Graphic unavailable
—17—

Reconfigurable RF Fil

Space Micro, Inc

2008 Phase I

O1.03-948

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Novel universal transmit and receive RF

module with exceptional center frequency

(UHF ~35+GHz), bandwidth (Hz to

>500 MHz), scales to >150 GHz

•	 Receive requires no DC input power; very

low parts count; “DAC-less” wideband

arbitrary direct to RF transmit modulator;

direct digital wideband RF power amp.

•	 Practical manufacture with existing and

future technologies (GaAs, SiGe, GaN,

MEM’s, Ferroelectrics); tunable left handed

meta-materials for best size reduction

•	 Easily integrated with available software

defined radio (SDR) components;

addresses NASA reconfigurable, modular

multi-mission flexibility (narrow and

wideband comms, radar) with one open

architecture RF hardware component

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 5-6

Technical Objectives

•	 Flow down system to hardware specification for UTR module identifying 

specific system(s) targeted (EVA, deep space comm., radar, UWB etc

•	 UTR design (block diagram, schematics), analysis (system parametrics) 

and simulation. UTR module capabilities for modular SDR application

Milestone #1—Preliminary UTR capability report

•	 Iterate UTR and identify manufacturing path, including projected 

size, weight and performance (SWAP). Validates components, space

application and capabilities

•	 Leveraging UTR system and components, explore additional 

applications in areas such as RF power amplification. Design and

analyze, define Phase II applicability

•	 Finalize UTR hardware specification: identify manufacturing, calibration, 

manufacturing steps for phase II hardware demonstration

Milestone #2—UTR module Phase II projected capability report

•	 Final report and identifying commercial applications of UTR for military, 

public safety, homeland defense, commercial wireless markets

NASA Applications and Non-NASA Applications

•	 In flight reconfigurable SDR agnostic RF front end for current and future

•	 RF communications and radar - EVA, SDST, SGLS, STDN, TDRSS, lunar, 

point to point, networked, surface/harsh environment etc

•	 DOD software defined radio (JTRS, AMF): terrestrial, airborne, naval

•	 Electronic Warfare, C4ISR capabilities

•	 Ideal for cognitive and mobile adaptive ad hoc networked (MANET) 

communications (802.xx) as well as traditional commercial wireless

(GSM/EDGE, CDMA, UMTS-WCDMA) 
—18—

Architectures/Algorithms/Tools for Ult

CompactEVA Digital 

UniRF Technologies, Inc

2008 Phase I

O1.04-861

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 One of the key challenges identified by

NASA for lunar outpost surface operations is the development of an S-band

extra-vehicular activity (EVA) digital radio.

It comes with stringent requirements in

terms of power efficiency, performance,

form factor, adaptivity, fault tolerance,

security and built-in navigation capability.

Although these varied requirements make

the underlying design problem quite complex and, hence, resistant to traditional

digital radio solutions, they open up opportunities for exploiting novel digital radio

architectures, algorithms and software

tools, based on upcoming nanotechnologies, to address the problem and meet the

ultra-low power, reliability and small form

factor requirements. Most of the digital

signal processing (DSP) related problems

for facilitating high bandwidth applications such as 3D and high-definition data

over digital radios can be traced back

to system efficiency, leading to increasingly complex challenges in designing a

high-performance, yet ultra-low power,

digital radio despite significant advances

in top-down radio designs. This presents

opportunities to approach the problem

bottoms-up, right from the system architecture level and optimize upwards till the

application level.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 2-3

Technical Objectives

•	 The objective of digital radio architecture is to leverage hybrid 

nanotechnology/CMOS fabrication for NATURE FPGA core, map a 

complete EVA digital radio operation and integrate MIMO, RF front-end 

MEMS, MAC/baseband, communication protocols and applications, 

such as our network based location awareness application, for a 

complete system demonstration of a functional EVA digital radio

•	 Investigate an ultra low-power FinFET implementation of a NanoRAM 

based 3D reconfigurable architecture for a dynamically reconfigurable 

FPGA. Analyze, evaluate and investigate digital radio applications according to the EVA performance metrics and simulate and test a relative

location-aware algorithm based on a hybrid distributed localization 

concept towards providing our miniaturized EVA Digital Radio named 

CHANDRA – for Compact, Hi-performance and Agile Nano Digital Radio

NASA Applications

•	 EVA digital radios are suitable for lunar surface outpost operations 

under stringent power, efficiency and performance requirements, for 

security and built-in navigation capability. Application seeking non-GPS

relative location-aware algorithm facilitating multimode protocol functioning for voice (VoIP), video, 3D and high definition data transmission, 

QoS-aware packet-level power management for digital radio applications on ultra-low power and miniaturized digital radio

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Novel ultra-low power architectures, bandwidth intensive applications 

such as voice-over IP (VoIP), video, data transmission, High Definition 

TV with optimized digital radio Applications, for commercial communications industry, for government agencies like DoD and DHS for their 

mission critical operations as a light weight, high performance digital 

radio
—19—

ReconfigurableEVA Radio with Built-In Navigation 

Intelligent Automation, Inc

2008 Phase I

O1.04-889

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 A power-efficient miniaturized

reconfigurable EVA radio system with

built-in 3D navigation capability is

proposed. It uses the evanescent mode

cavities RF MEMS tunable filter and

software defined radio technologies to

achieve extreme miniaturization, power

saving, and reconfigurability.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 3-5

Technical Objectives

•	 Generate an overall system design

•	 Design the EVA radio

•	 Design the MEMS tunable filter

•	 Develop the 3D navigation function

•	 Develop middleware for link adaptation

•	 Evaluate the performance using simulation and sensitivity analysis

•	 Estimate the power consumption, mass, size, and reliability

NASA Applications

•	 Communications between rovers and spacecraft

•	 Astronaut EVA communications

•	 Space port communications and asset tracking

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Warfighter/firefighter situation awareness system

•	 Autonomous navigation of unmanned vehicles
—20—

Reconfigurable Ultra-Low Power Minituri

Teranovi Technologies

2008 Phase I

O1.04-963

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 A comprehensive design architecture

that can achieve ultra-low power

miniaturized EVA radio is proposed. Under

this architecture, new MEMS-based

technologies are employed to dramatically

reduce the power consumption of RF

front end and transceiver. By exploiting

commercial wireless technologies in

baseband and medium access control

(MAC) modules, the EVA radio is also

conformant to standard commercial

wireless networks. Power consumption in

baseband and MAC modules is minimized

by selecting the most power-efficient

design among commercial products. To

further minimize power consumption

during communications, power-efficient

protocols across different layers are

proposed. Such protocols are QoSoriented and can support self-discovery,

self-configuration, and self-healing of ad

hoc networks formed by EVA radios.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 3-4

Technical Objectives

•	 Design the modular architecture of the EVA radio: designing the 

hardware/software architecture of the entire radio, studying the 

interface between transceiver and baseband, and investigating 

interactions between HAL/driver and hardware modules

•	 Design RF front end and transceiver: designing an miniaturized ultralow power RF front and transceiver covering the entire 2.4-2.483 GH

band of interest based on MEMS technologies; system-level simulation; 

performance impact by factors (e.g., radiation) in lunar environme

•	 Select baseband and MAC modules: compare and determine the most 

power-efficient BB/MAC cores

•	 Design protocols for performance optimization of EVA radios: a powerefficient UMR protocol with QoS support; power-efficient middleware

•	 Develop location tracking algorithm: a distributed location tracking 

scheme only based on communications among EVA radios.

NASA Applications

•	 EVA radios can be used in lunar exploration. The same technologies can be 

adapted to the explorations of other stars like Mars. EVA radios can be used 

for other deep-space networks.

Non-NASA Applications

•	 DoD applications such as battlefield communications and networking.

•	 The most promising application area will be IEEE 802.11 radios and networks, 

as today IEEE 802.11 radio consumes too much power, a huge obstacle to 

integrating IEEE 802.11 radios into battery-powered devices such as cell 

phones, PDAs, laptops, palm PCs. Power-efficient radios and protocols are 

critical to wireless sensor networks. They can also find potential applications 

in vehicular networks, disaster-response networks, under-water networks 

seeking ultra-low power radios and power-efficient protocols.
—21—

Fault Tolerant Software-Defined Radio on

MaXentric Technologies

2009 Phase I

O1.03-811

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Programmability

•	 Portability

•	 Fault tolerance

•	 Size, weight, power reduction

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 3-5

Technical Objectives

•	 Prototype of a fault-tolerant multi-core radio system, Resilient

– Prevention—on-chip software hardwalls, scrubbing, health 

monitoring

– Detection—spatial, temporal, and spatial-temporal modulo 

redundancy

– Correction—waveform- and system-level checkpointing and 

rollback

•	 Evaluation of Resilient’s fault tolerance

•	 Establishment of improvement objectives for Resilient for Phases II and 

III

NASA Applications

•	 Space-bound SDR (e.g. CoNNeC

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Military (e.g. JTRS), first responders, smart phones, femtocells

automobiles

RF

front

end

Maestro

multicore Resilient

DAC

ADC

SIFT

Thread

User

Thread

Health

management

Checkpoint

and rollback

Resource

allocation

SIFT

Thread

SIFT

Thread

User

Thread

User

Thread

DAC

FT communication (e.g. ECC)

User

Thread
—22—

ReconfigurableVLIW Processor for Software 

Aries Design Automation, LLC 

2009 Phase I

O1.03-838

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Future NASA missions depend on

radiation-hardened, and power-efficient

microprocessors that will be customtailored for space applications, and can

execute legacy Power PC 750 binary code.

We will implement and formally verify a

reconfigurable VLIW processor optimized

for Software Defined Radio (SDR)

applications. The processor will implement

RazorII, a microarchitectualmechanism

that allows a microprocessor to selfmonitor, self-analyze, and self-heal after

timing errors, regardless of their cause—

radiation, aging of the chip, or variations

in the voltage, frequency, temperature, or

manufacturing process.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 6

Technical Objectives

•	 Design and formally verify for both safety and liveness a VLIW 

processor with the RazorII mechanism, with VLIW instructions 

consisting of predicated RISC instructions from the Power PC 750 

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

•	 Design and formally verify reconfigurable functional units and 

corresponding new instructions to accelerate SDR applications and 

formally verify the binary-code compatibility of the new VLIW processor 

with the Power PC 750 ISA

•	 Compile SDR applications to the VLIW ISA

•	 Run simulations to measure the performance and power consumption 

of the VLIW processor

NASA Applications and Non-NASA Applications

•	 The project will result in technology to very quickly design and formally 

verify radiation-hardened and reconfigurable VLIW processors that are 

binary-code compatible with any legacy ISA hat has a formal definition 

of its instruction semantics. It will be possible to add new instructions

and reconfigurable functional units

Pipelined processor with the RazorII mechanism. Since the RazorII flip-flops (FFs) 

in each pipeline stage are ORed together, this scheme will detect any number of 

Single Event Upsets in a pipeline stage.
—23—

Miniaturized Digitl EV

Bennett Aerospace, LLC 

2009 Phase I

O1.04-906

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 The objective of this proposed program is

to develop a small, lightweight and very

power-efficient mobile radio for use on

the lunar surface—that will reduce power

consumption by 90%. Bennet Aerospace,

LLC of the Research Triangle Park area of

North Carolina has teamed with Princeton

University and Arizona State University.

We will focus on the active and adaptive

control of the power management system.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 2-3

Technical Objectives

•	 System requirements specification and trade-space

•	 Determine additional requirements

•	 Characterize reconfigurable RF font -end

•	 EVA platform radio architecture development

•	 System controller architecture development

•	 RTL level design and demonstration of controller central processing unit

NASA Applications

•	 EVAs and future Lunar and Mars EVAs

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Mobile phone technology for significantly increased operation on a 

single battery charge

•	 DOD for lightweight radios (special ops) and unattended ground sensor 

power management

High-level EVA platform sub-units.
—24—

RF Front End Baed on MEMS Components 

Digital VA R

AlphaSense, Inc

2009 Phase I

O1.04-934

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 RF front end based on MEMS components

for miniaturized digital EVA radio is

proposed

•	 Key innovations of our approach include

– Use of a novel parallel receiver front

end architecture based on MEMS

components

– Novel design of a high Q mixer-filter and

voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) using

CMOS fabrication technique

– Consequently, the proposed EVA radio

has advantages including small size,

light- weight, low poser consumption,

high sensitivity and frequency

selectivity, good device reliability,

easy device fabrication, and low

manufacturing cost

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 4

Technical Objectives

•	 Prove the feasibility of using MEMS component to implement a 

miniature radio for EVA applications

•	 Optimize the designs for the MEMS mixer-filter, band pass filter, and 

VCO to operate in the S- band

•	 Optimize the MEMS device fabrication process

•	 Identify optimum components for the Phase II radio prototype 

construction and testing

NASA Applications

•	 Used in EVA radios for space exploration. The significantly reduced form

factor and power requirements along with the increased selectivity and 

performance of the MEMS-based EVA radio allows long duration human 

exploration while simultaneously increasing communication reliability 

and crew safety

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Wireless and mobile radio communications. For example, it can be

used by first responders to enhance interoperability among police, 

firefighters, HazMat, homeland security and medical personnel. It

can also be used by military personnel for the soldier-centric secure 

communications and mode switchable on-the-fly communications

•	 The miniature MEMS RF front end components can also find 

commercial applications in cell phones, pagers, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/UWB 

radio integration

Schematic of the RF front end architecture based on MEMS 

components

MEMS VCO

SEM image of RF MEMS mixer-filter
—25—

Development of a Novel, Ultra-Low SWAP, RAD-Tolerant, MultiChannel, Reprogrammable Photo

Optical Transceiver 

Space Photonics, Inc

2010 Phase I

O1.02-825

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Special purpose data processing:

reconfigurable, reprogrammable, and

multi-protocol compatible optical

communications hardware

•	 Ultra-low SWAP electronics for intrasystem data transfer and subsystem data

transfer

•	 Extreme reduction in package size and

component count for up to 10 Gbps x

10 channel optical switching, routing,

networking, etc.

•	 Fully supports the NASA SCaN Internet

Architecture Program

•	 Proven materials, fabrication and

packaging processes will be utilized,

many of which are based on NASA’s EEEINST-002, MIL-PRF-38534E, MIL-STD-883F,

and parts/materials from the NPSL –SPI

has full capability to qualify based on

standards above

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 1-4

Technical Objectives

•	 Identify and secure RAD tolerant COTs devices and packaging materials 

capable of facilitating the custom integration of the PIC device to create 

an ultra-low SWAP, RAD tolerant, multi-channel, high speed (up to 

10 Gbps per channel) reprogrammable optical networking TRX module 

that will ultimately benefit NASA’s SCaN Internet Architecture Program

•	 Prepare the devices as proposed and demonstrate the benefits to the 

NASA SCaN Program –namely: interconnect complexity reduction, 

significant SWAP reduction (> 2X size reduction from 6U to 3U, > 2X 

power dissipation reduction from ~1 W to 0.4 mW per optical TRX

channel, and > 2X weight reduction from ~1 oz. to 0.4 oz. per optic

TRX channel; and improved single channel data rates, flexibility, and 

scalability from 1 Gbps up to 10 Gbps

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Our products specifically target onboard data handling needs of 

NASA, DoD, and the Intelligence Community’s satellite remote sensing 

applications. Our multi-protocol intelligent networking systems target

both NASA’s SCaN Internet Architecture and DOD’s Transformational 

Communications Architecture (TCA)

•	 Other applications will include the utilization of some of SPI’s 

optoelectronics components in harsh environment fiber to the ‘x’ 

applications, such as FTTH, FTTC, FTTD, etc

The RAD-tolerant, space-worthy, high speed optical communications PIC TRX’s being developed by Space 

Photonics, Inc. provide a variety of enabling space communications options that are in-line with NASA’s 

SCaN Internet Architecture Program goals.
—26—

Radiation Hard Electronics for Advanced Comm

System

ICs, LLC 

2010 Phase I

O1.02-949

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Sub 100 nm electronics are essential f

advanced communication systems

•	 Legacy SEU tolerant electronics ineffective

for sub 100 nm electronics

•	 A new radiation hard solution is needed

for sub 100 nm electronics

•	 A new fault tolerant , high speed ,

configurable/reprogrammable electron

communication system solution is

proposed that will provide the foundation

for sub 100 nm electronics

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 1-3

Technical Objectives

•	 Design SEU tolerant logic for self recovering memory cell

•	 Design logic cells for Self Recovery Logic (SRL)

•	 Identify paradigm for SRL system

•	 Compare SRL hardware solutions with full TMR

•	 Perform layout of SRL for fabrication 

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Sub 100 nm electronic foundation for SEU tolerant electronics

•	 Electronic base for reconfigurable communication systems

•	 Single chip communication systems for NASA and DoD

•	 SEU tolerance solution for real time control systems using sub 100 nm 

commercial electronics
—27—

Reconfigurable/Reprogrammable Communications Sy

Pacific Microchip Corporation

2011 Phase I

O1.02-865

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 NASA developed Space

Telecommunications Radio System (STRS)

standard defines an architecture enabling

interoperability of Software Defined

Radio (SDR) components. Our proposed

solution is a STRS compliant monolithic,

low-power,multifunctional 56GS/s Direct

Digital Modulation/Demodulation (DDM)

SDR transceiver. The transceiver will

utilize novel D/A and A/D converters and

an all-digital implementation of frequency

up- and down-conversion, I/Q modulation

and demodulation. The innovation offers

a highly reconfigurable low power SDR

solution within STRS.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 1-3

Technical Objectives

•	 To provide the architecture, schematics, in silico validation and 

a hardware proof of the concept of a low power SDR transceiver

To get the design ready for monolithic implementation in Phase II

The proposed SDR transceiver will satisfy NASA’s requirements 

for low power consumption and functionality and be ready for 

commercialization in Phase III

– Block level design

– Circuit level design and verification

– Design validation in silico

– Project report

NASA Applications

•	 Low power reconfigurable SDR transmitters and receivers featuring 

power optimization capability depending on the required data rate 

at high modulation frequencies have great potential in current and 

future NASA missions. Besides its application for CONNECT experiment

installed on ISS, the proposed all-digital SDR transceiver is directly 

applicable to systems seeking autonomous operation such as deep 

space communication radios. Another application for the proposed SDR

is NASA’s OIB mission

Non-NASA Applications

•	 The proposed wideband SDR transceiver and its building blocks will be 

targeting applications which require high speed capture, digitization, 

and synthesis of wideband signals. Commercial applications include

wireless (WiMAX, 3G, 4G) and fiber optic communication (40G and 

100G Ethernet). Military applications include high speed, secure

communication systems and millimeter-resolution radars
—28—

High Performance ADC for Reconfigurable/Repro

Communication Syste

Ridgetop Group, Inc

2011 Phase I

O1.02-955

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Ridgetop proposes to design a novel, lowpower, time-interleaved pipeline ADC that

will have 2 bits higher effective number

of bits (ENOB = 11.0 bits) than the best

commercially available radiation-tolerant

1 GS/s ADCs (ENOB = 9.0 bits). In addition,

the ADC will consume 50% less power

than the competitors’. The ADC will have

four configurable pipeline channels and

three programmable operation modes:

– 12-b, 2 GS/s, 1 W

– 13-b, 500 MS/s, 750 mW

– 12-b, 500 MS/s,250 mW

•	 The ADC will be designed in the IBM 8HP

SiGe 130 nm process, which is inherently

tolerant to extreme levels of radiation. In

addition, RHBD techniques will be used to

guarantee tolerance to 5 Mrads of TID and

sufficient hardness against single-event

effects (SEEs). The operating temperature

range will be –55 to 125 °C

•	 Due to its programmability, high

performance, low power, and very

high radiation tolerance, the ADC will

be suitable to support reconfigurable

transreceiver technology for space

missions.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 2-4

Technical Objectives

•	 Design and simulate SiGe op-amps used in the sample-and-hold (S/H) 

circuits and in the first two pipeline stages

•	 Design and simulate CMOS operational amplifiers (op-amps) used in 

the remaining pipeline stages

•	 Design and simulate a CMOS comparator (can be simple, low-power 

design due to applied redundant signed digit (RSD) digital error 

correction)

•	 Design 1.5-bit flash stage and pipeline stages with calibrated MDACs

(multiplying digital-to-analog converters)

•	 Design timing circuitry and perform clock jitter analysis

•	 Integrate and simulate the two MDAC stages

•	 Apply RHBD techniques and perform radiation effect simulations

NASA Applications

•	 NASA applications include: communication systems, radar, imaging, 

detectors, space radio astronomy, UAVSAR and Europa programs

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Military satellite communications

•	 Space-based, synthetic aperture, and digital beam-forming (DBF) radars

•	 Wide-band satellite receivers and wireless RF infrastructures

•	 Wireless LAN

•	 Data acquisition systems

•	 Software-defined radio

•	 Power amplifier linearization

•	 Signal intelligence and jamming
—29—

Software Defined Radio Techno

SBIR Phse I

2005 to 2012
—30—

A Hardware/Software Design Environment for Recon

Communication Syste

BINACHIP, Inc

2005 Phase II

O1.06-980

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Space Exploration will require

advancements in communication systems

to maintain flexibility and adaptability to

changing needs and requirements

•	 Develop automated techniques to

take software implementations

of reconfigurable communication

applications and map them to FPGAs and

SOCs

•	 Reduce design times from months to days

Technical Objectives

•	 Study techniques for automatic translation of software implementations 

to RTL VHDL for mapping to FPGAs on reconfigurable hardware

•	 Investigate techniques for hardware/software co-design for 

reconfigurable hardware

•	 Apply techniques to Software Defined Radio (SDR)

•	 Task A—Translation of software to RTL VHDL

•	 Task B—Low power design

•	 Task C—System level verification

•	 Task D—Demonstration on large NASA applications 

NASA Applications

•	 Software defined radio, communication systems

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Embedded systems software for PDAs, cellphones, electronic design 

automation for networking, communications, digital signal processing
—31—

Multi-Mission μ

Toyon Research Corporation

2006 Phase II

O1.05-902

Identification and Significance of Innovation

The proliferation of satellites and terrestrial

vehicles for space exploration calls for

post flight reconfiguration. Such capability

supports multiple waveforms as well as

system updates.

The vision for μSDR is to meet varying mission

needs in a low-power and compact package

by leveraging the state-of-the-art in hardware

and software design.

•	 Complete System-on-a-Chip (SoC) solution

– Field programmable gate array

(FPGA) provides hardware logic for

implementing waveform physical layer

and bus interfaces

– Soft Microblazeprocessor implements

data link and higher application layer

support

Technical Objectives

•	 Design and manufacture radiation-tolerant digital solution leveraging 

Xilinx QPro-R Virtex-II FPGA

– Waveform support as well as standards-based data connectivity, 

such as Ethernet

•	 Develop second-generation RF solution and standards compliant 

waveform

– Highly-integrated, direct-conversion RF front end

– Baseline implementation of IEEE 802.1

NASA Applications and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Micro-satellites

•	 Autonomous ground vehicles

•	 Ground links

•	 Relatively low volume custom radio design for a variety of user specific 

applications in the DoD, emergency response, homeland security, and 

commercial sectors
—32—

Stackable Radiation Harde

NxGen Electronics, Inc

2006 Phase II

O1.05-963

Identification and Significance of Innovation

In Phase I NEI assembled FRAM modules

from die fabricated from the previous Phase

II SBIR. The modules were subjected to TID

and SEU testing to characterize the FRAM

radiation tolerance. The first pass resul

were remarkably successful.

This Phase II includes redesign of the mask

sets and re-testing. Then 2 & 8 high stack

designs will be completed and a complete

environmental and life tests conducted. The

result should be a low cost 2-16 Mb product

offering based on a commercial foundry wi

2 MradTID and high SEU tolerance.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 8

Technical Objectives

•	 Celis Semiconductor had previously manufactured one wafer of die 

at Fujitsu, and performed confidence testing on several die. NxGen

performed a ‘blind’ build of enough packaged parts to successfully 

support the radiation test series. For Phase II, Celis will support another

spin of the FRAM design, NxGen Electronics will support radiation retesting of the redesigned silicon and compare the results to modeling 

data. NxGen would then build a number of 2 & 4 high stacks to perform

environmental tests and a reliability demonstration 

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Shuttle, space station, earth sensing missions and deep space probes

Missions which will benefit are Mars Surveyor, solar system exploration 

e.g. (Titan, Europa landers, Comet Nucleus Return, New Discover

Program, and Living with a Star)

•	 Commercial applications include space platforms, both GEO and LEO 

such as the Boeing Space HS-601 and Lockheed A2100

•	 Telecommunication satellites and sensing applications (NOAA) 

require this memory to store critical data and support on board data 

processing

•	 Terrestrial applications include nuclear power plants and research 

accelerators (Fermi Lab)
—33—

Miniaturized UHF, S-, and K-band RF MEMS 

Form Factor, High Perfrman

Harmonics Devices, Inc

2006 Phase II

O1.06-917

Identification and Significance of Innovation

RF MEMS filters are a key enabler for next

generation EVA radio

•	 Miniaturized UHF, S-band and Ka-band

MEMS filters drastically reduced volume

and weight (up to 54 mm2 per filter set)

•	 Enables high performance reconfigurable,

frequency agile, fault tolerant architecture

•	 Single-chip,high-Q micro-machined piezo

RF components for UHF and S-band

•	 3D MEMS coaxial Ka-band interdigital

technology

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 5

Technical Objectives

•	 Develop representative UHF, S-band, and Ka-band filter prototypes 

that can be delivered to NASA for testing and sampled to commercial 

customers

– Resonator and materials optimization

– Simulation and design software tools

– UHF, S-band, and Ka-band filter fabrication and characterization

– Statistical process control for high yield manufacturing

– Trimming

– Package and qualify components

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 NASA EVA radio systems

•	 Harsh environment operation

•	 Spacecraft and planetary surface communication networks

•	 Cellphones/pagers, Wi-Fi, UWB (multi billion dollar market)

•	 Ultra-low-power distributed sensor networks

•	 Interoperable first responder radios (police, fire, hazmat, Homeland 

Security, medical personnel)
—34—

Reconfigurable, Cognitive Software Defined

Intelligent Automation, Inc

2008 Phase II

O1.03-936

Identification and Significance of Innovation

IAI is developing Software Defined Radio

platforms that can adaptively switch

between different modes of operation for

communication; by modifying both transmit

waveforms and receiver signal-processing

tasks on the fly. Our innovation focuses

on implementing maximum transceiver

functionalities digital reconfigurable devices

(FPGA), and minimizing the number of analog

components. Our SDR designs are based on

COTS components and are modular which

makes it easierto upgrade smaller design units

with state-of-the-art development instead

of re-designing the entire SDR platform. The

proposed innovations are:

•	 STRS implementation on COTS SDR

platforms to realize NASA objectives

and the benefits of an open architecture

standard.

•	 Integration of cognitive capabilities (with

focus on STRS compliant implementation)

with the Phase Ideveloped SDR. This

would include adaptive modulation and

coding, automatic modulation recognition

and Spectrum Sensing.

•	 Reconfigurable digital transceiver design

using high-speed FPGAs. This would

enable multi-mode operation and scalable

architecture for SDRs.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 6

Technical Objectives

•	 Implement STRS on COTS or custom designed SDR platform. IAI will

work closely with GDAIS in defining requirements for a COTS platform 

suitable for STRS implementation and implement a test waveform

•	 Waveform definitions for NASA CoNNeCT program will be studied and 

requirements for AMC in these waveforms will be identified. A prototype

transmitter system with desired AMC capabilities will be designed and 

demonstrated

•	 AMR algorithms developed in Phase I will be modified to support 

modulation types identified under the earlier objective. The AMR

algorithms will be simulated for performance analysis, and partitioned 

into fixed point hardware and software domain, depending on the 

implementation complexity. The modified AMR will be implemented on

the prototype SDR platform

•	 Demonstrate joint operation of AMC, AMR (in a controlled environment) 

running on SDRs configured as dedicated transmitter and receiver

•	 Implementation of advanced SDR features of interest to the NASA 

CoNNeCT program and identify path to space qualification

NASA Applications

•	 Cognitive capabilities for NASA STRS like AMC, AMR and Spectral 

sensing

•	 Reconfigurable communication radios for EVA and space missions

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Cognitive Radios for DoD applications

•	 High bandwidth, plug-and-play waveform synthesizer

•	 Real –time digital processors

•	 UAV based applications, including UAV based communications and 

radar applications

Wideband Data Converter (WDC)
—35—

Fault Tolerant Software-Defined Radio on Rad-H

MaXentric Technologies

2009 Phase II

O1.03-811

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Multicore rad-hard Maestro processor

– 90 nm,49 cores, beats competition by

100x

•	 STRS compliance for interoperability with

other space radio components

•	 Multi-mode operation

– Transition between waveforms in

nanoseconds

•	 Future-proof comm systems

– Patch software, not hardware, as

missions evolve

•	 Over-the-air reconfiguration

– Upload new software over-the-air

•	 Easy-to-program research platform

– Program in C/C++ for low cost

prototyping

•	 SWaP reduction

– Support multiple applications,

eliminating other processing boards

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 4-6

Technical Objectives

•	 Ultra-flexible baseband processing on rad-hard multicore

•	 Programmable rad-hard multicore network stack

•	 STRS compliance for multicore-based architecture

•	 Support for non-communications applications

•	 Radiation tolerance and ruggedization for space application

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 Ultra-flexible rad-hard communications for NASA and DoD missions

•	 Rad-hard communications for commercial satellites

•	 Rad-hard data processing for satellite-based surveillance (e.g. NR

•	 Easy-to-program research platform for communications R&D

•	 Rad-hard computing for nuclear application
—36—

ReconfigurableVLIW Processor for Software 

Aries Design Automation, LLC 

2009 Phase II

O1.03-838

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Future NASA missions depend on

radiation-hardened, and power-efficient

Systems on a Chip (SOCs) that will consist

of a range of processor cores that are

custom-tailored for space applications,

and can execute legacy PowerPC 750

binary code. We will implement and

formally verify such SOCs optimized

for Software Defined Radio (SDR)

applications. The processor cores will

implement RazorII, a microarchitectural

mechanism that allows them to selfmonitor, self-analyze, and self-heal after

timing errors, regardless of their cause—

radiation, aging of the chip, or variations

in the voltage, frequency, temperature, or

manufacturing process.

•	 New generations of SDR protocols require

1 –3 orders of magnitude increase in

computations with almost unchanged

power-consumption; such constraints

cannot be met by conventional CPUs, but

only by flexible and scalable architectures

such as specialized SOCs with

reconfigurable functional units.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 6

Technical Objectives

•	 Design and formally verify for both safety and liveness a range of 

different single-issue pipelined, dual-issue superscalar, and VLIW 

processor cores, having hardware support for multithreading and the 

RazorIImechanism,executing the instructions from the PowerPC 750 

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) to guarantee correct execution of 

legacy binary codefrom current space missions, and implementing new 

instructions that use reconfigurable functional units to accelerate SDR 

algorithms;

•	 Design and formally verify a range of different SOCs consisting of such 

processor cores;

•	 Perform SAT-based technology mapping, placement, and routing of 

complex SDR operations to the reconfigurable functional units;

•	 Compile SDR applications to the ISAs supported by the cores;

•	 Run hardware-software co-simulations to measure the performance 

and power consumption of the SOCs, and select an optimal design

NASA and Non-NASA Applications

•	 The project will result in a design environment that will allow a user 

to very quickly implement and formally verify a System on a Chip 

(SOC) consisting of heterogeneous processor cores that are radiationhardened, reconfigurable, and binary-code compatible with anylegacy 

ISA that has a formal definition of its instruction semantics. It will be

possible to add new instructions that use reconfigurable functional 

units to accelerate specific applications, such as SDR,as well as to 

formally verify properties of the resulting binary code
—37—

RF Front End Baed on MEMS Components 

Digital VA R

AlphaSense, Inc

2009 Phase II

O1.04-934

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 A small form factor, low power

consumption and high performance

S band EVA radio receiver front end

based on fully integrated CMOS-MEMS

components;

•	 An optimized low-IF architecture allows

the implementation of a high performance

receiver with a small device count;

•	 A novel design of a high Q mixer-filter for

RF mixing, IF filtering and amplification,

which further reduces the form factor,

device count and power consumption of

the whole receiver.

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 6-7

Technical Objectives

•	 Further enhance the conversion gain and noise figure characteristics of 

the MEMS mixer-filters;

•	 Develop a high quality quadrature generator with a high image rejection 

to improve the receiver performance;

•	 Implement adaptive beam steering to minimize multi-path loss, and to 

mitigate co-channel interference;

•	 Prototype a fully integrated S band receiver front end based on a radioon-a-chip solution, and characterize its performance for voice, data, 

telemetry and high definition video applications 

NASA Applications

•	 Used in EVA radios for space exploration. The significantly reduced form

factor and power requirements along with the increased selectivity 

and enhanced functionality of the MEMS-based EVA radio allows 

long duration human exploration while simultaneously increasing 

communication reliability and crew safety

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Wireless and mobile radio communications. For example, it can be

used by first responders to enhance interoperability among police, 

firefighters, HazMat, homeland security and medical personnel. It can

also be used by the military personnel for the soldier-centric secure 

communications and mode switchable on-the-fly communications

•	 The miniature MEMS RF front end components can also find 

commercial applications in cell phones, pagers, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/UWB 

radio integration

The receiver RF front end based on a low-IF architecture and its CMOS-MEMS implementation
—38—

Radiation Hard Electronics for Advanced Comm

System

ICs, LLC 

2010 Phase II

O1.02-949

Identification and Significance of Innovation

•	 Self Restoring Logic (SRL)

•	 Sub 100 nm electronics critical for

advanced communication systems

•	 Legacy SEU tolerant electronics ineffective

for sub 100 nm electronics

•	 New radiation hard solution found for sub

100 electronics

•	 Truly fault tolerant high speed electronic

solution is proposed that provides

thefoundation for sub 100 nm electronics

•	 A reconfigurable/reprogrammable

communication system proposed.

•	 Replace Triple Modular Redundancy

technology

Expected TRL range at the end of contract

•	 2-5

Technical Objectives

•	 Design SRL synthesis library for use with commercial CAD tools

•	 Traditional latches, logic and arithmetic elements

•	 Low Voltage Digital Switching (LVDS) module

•	 On-chip Random Access Memory cells

•	 Serial-to-parallel and Parallel-to-Serial Converters

•	 Design, fabricate SRL test chip for high speed performance and 

radiation testing

•	 Test chip consists of:

– SRL latches to conclusively prove high speed operation

– Add control legacy RHBD cells

– Non-redundant storage elements

– LVDS circuit

– Memory cells 

NASA Applications

•	 Sub100 nm electronic foundation for SEU tolerant electronics

•	 Electronic base for reconfigurable communication systems

•	 Single chip communication systems for NASA and DoD

•	 Radiation hard electronics basis for NASA circuits 

Non-NASA Applications

•	 Reprogrammable/reconfigurable communication systems with fault 

tolerant electronics has direct applications in Defense systems

•	 In the past, every custom high performance ICs processor designed for 

NASA has beeneventually incorporated into defense systems

—40—
—41—

Aeronix, Inc., Melbourne, FL .

AlphaSense, Inc., Newark, DE .  .  

Aries Design Automation, LLC, Chicago, IL .  .  

Bennett Aerospace, LLC, Cary, NC . 

BINACHIP, Inc., Glenview, IL .  . 

Coherent Logix, Inc., Austin, TX   

Harmonic Devices, Inc., Berkeley, CA .  .  

Hittite Microwave Corporation, Chelmsford, MA .

ICs, LLC, McCall, ID .  .  

Intelligent Automation, Inc., Rockville, MD .  .  .  .

Lexycom Technologies, Inc.. Longmont, CO . 

MaXentric Technologies, Fort Lee, NJ and San Diego, CA .  .  

Microelectronics Research Development Corporation, Albuquerque, NM  .

NxGen Electronics, Inc., San Diego, CA .  . 

Pacific Microchip Corporpation, Culver City, CA . 

Ridgetop Group, Inc., Tucson, AZ . 

Space Micro, Inc., San Diego, CA  .  . 

Space Photonics, Inc., Fayetteville, AR . 

Teranovi Technologies, Bothell, WA . 

Toyon Research Corporation, Goleta, CA .  .  

UniRF Technologies, Inc., Saratoga, CA .  

VIDA Products, Santa Rosa, CA   

WW Technology Group, Ellicott City, MD .

Company Na
James D. Stegema

Technology Manager

Space Communications and Navigation Program

NASA Glenn Research Center

M/S 142–2

Cleveland, Ohio 44135

Telephone: 216–433–3389

E-mail: James.D.Stegeman@nasa.

Afroz J. Zama

NASA Glenn Research Center

M/S 54–1

Cleveland, Ohio 44135

Telephone: 216–433–3415

E-mail: Afroz.J.Zaman@nasa.g

PS–01282–0714

SB

Points of Con

—42—
Cover photo: SCaN testbed under GRC 

thermal vacuum testing.