A programmable ultra wideband signal generator for electromagnetic susceptibility testing

Under Phase I of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Networking in Extreme Environments (NETEX) initiative, Multispectral Solutions, Inc. (MSSI) was tasked with the development of a general purpose, ultra wideband hardware simulator capable of reproducing a wide variety of ultra wideband (UWB) waveforms. The simulator, with UWB outputs from baseband through millimeter wave, was to be used for the purpose of electromagnetic susceptibility testing of legacy military radio, radar and positioning systems. The ultimate goal of this portion of the Phase I program was the quantitative determination of those UWB parameters (e.g., frequency, power, pulse rate, pulse shape, dithering, etc.), which had the least impact on the operational performance of legacy designs. This paper describes the development of the MSSI NETEX UWB simulator (BFPl000).