DARPA has awarded IQ-Analog Corporation a $4.5M contract to develop and validate a new analog to digital converter (ADC) architecture.
IQ-Analog is tasked with development of an ADC prototype in 14 nm CMOS with full spectrum conversion capability that promises to enhance military radar systems.
The revolutionary new architecture uses a new patented innovation known as “Traveling Pulse Wave Quantization” to increase the effective data rate of the conversion process with less than half the power of existing approaches. A future prototype will operate at sample rates over 60-GHz and will be able to capture the entire electromagnetic spectrum up to 30-GHz. This full spectrum conversion capability promises to dramatically enhance modern radar systems and thereby augment our military prowess in electronic warfare. The ADC will be fabricated in GlobalFoundries’ 14 nm FinFET CMOS process.
IQ-Analog is a private semiconductor company founded in 2004 in San Diego, California, focused on high-speed data converter technology.
