A TELEMETRY TRANSMITTER CHIP SET FOR BALLISTIC APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The U.S. Army’s Hardened Subminiature Telemetry and Sensor Systems (HSTSS) program has engaged the M/A-COM Corporation to work in the development of a highly accurate, crystal controlled telemetry transmitter chip set to be used in Army and other U.S. military munitions. A critical factor in this work is the operating environment of up to 100,000-g launch accelerations. To support the Army in this project, M/A-COM is developing integrated Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCO) for L and S band, a silicon synthesizer/phase locked loop (PLL) IC, and a family of power amplifiers. Lastly, the transmitter module will be miniaturized and hardened using M/A-COM’s latest chip-onboard mixed technology manufacturing capabilities. This new chip set will provide the telemetry engineer with unprecedented design flexibility. This paper will review the overall transmitter system design and provide an overview for each functional integrated circuit.