Circuit as a Sensor, a Practical Concept for Electronic Prognostics

Practical condition assessment and prediction of remaining useful life for electronic communication and weapon systems offers significant potential for improved readiness and field reliability of military and civilian defense systems. Modern systems, operating in the Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum, employ significant digital signal processing and data management elements central to their core design purpose, offering an opportunity to exploit available data for condition monitoring and health assessment. These Digital RF (RF/D) systems have become ubiquitous in Department of Defense (DoD) and in civilian life including systems such as radar, GPS and communications. As the importance of these systems has increased and designers seek to embed apertures and dynamic circuit elements into weapon platform structures, maintainability and reliability become significant concerns. The authors have developed and demonstrated techniques for RF/D Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) that can help reduce significant costs resulting from traditional maintenance techniques. This paper introduces the ‘circuit as sensor’ concept as an innovative PHM solution that minimizes or eliminates the need for additional sensor and data acquisition equipment to implement PHM on RF/D systems. System level features and device functionality data provide failure prediction and RUL estimation. Results from ongoing research and development are presented.