Academics

Bio

Jeff Kruth is the Morehead State University Radio Frequency (RF) and Electrical Engineer. He holds a
B.S. Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and completed coursework for an M.S. Electrophysics, at George Washington University. Jeff has over 30 years experience in defense electronics research. He has held top secret clearance and has worked on a wide array of projects in microwave and RF electronics, radar systems, radio astronomy instrumentation, satellite Earth station systems, and a variety of other technologies. Jeff is the owner of a sole proprietorship firm called Kruth-Microwave Electronics Company (K-MEC), founded in 1986, whose main business areas as RF & Microwave consulting and applied research & development programs for the various DOD components, contractors, and commercial firms.

At the Space Science Center, Jeff designs, builds and tests all RF, IF and back-end systems associated with the 21 Meter Space Tracking Antenna. These include hydrogen line receivers (L-Band), S-Band systems, and higher frequency regime systems including C-Band, X-Band and Ku-Band systems. Jeff also leads design efforts for microsatellite systems (primarily telecommunications systems) designed, built, and operated by the Center. These include: KySat-1, the Cosmic X-Ray Background Nanosatellite, RAMPARTS, TechSat-1, Eagle-1, and others.

K-MEC R&D initiatives have involved multiple SBIR programs, as well as participation in other firms SBIR awards. Two significant K-MEC awards were N87-84 "Non Contact Ranging" which was a MMW radar development contract, and A88-220 "Integrated HF-VHF Power Circuits", an amplifier development effort. K-MEC previously supported expendable ECM development efforts for the Naval Air Warfare Center, Warminster PA. K-MEC has designed and built a fifty channel acousto-optic backend processor for an advanced sonar signal processor (Northrop-Grumman/Signal Corp.). Another design and development effort was the IR signal processor for the Battlefield Anti-Tank (BAT) missile (Northrop-Grumman). Additional on-going efforts for LFI (Baltimore MD, a Northrop-Grumman spin-off) are in the area of Navigation Warfare, Next-Gen GPS, and advanced radar sensor systems. Many other efforts for various agencies in the local MD-DC area have been conducted or are currently underway. Consulting efforts to industry include wireless system design and prototype development. A current effort is for the next generation Nano-Sat RF systems, to include the antennas, receivers and fully digitally controlled, variable modulation, frequency agile, MFSK transmitters, all on board the satellite, for SpaceQuest.

Mr Kruth has also served as the Manager of Hardware Development for Littlepage-Fincher, Incorporated, a defense contractor located in Baltimore, MD. In this capacity, he has been responsible for various programs for the Navy, Air Force, and other DoD components. Projects include: Advanced MMW Radar Sensor System, MMW Polarization Target Detection Demonstrator, Acoustic Charge Transport Signal Processor, YIG Thin Film Power Selective Limiter, Advanced GPS Anti-Jam Hardware, Dielectric Rod Zoom Antenna, among others.

From 1995 to 2001, Mr, Kruth was employed as an Adjunct Professor and the Manager of the Electrical Engineering Laboratories at Capitol College, Laurel, MD. Prior to that he served as Manager-System Development, Defense Systems Concepts, Inc. (DSCI), (Aug. 1988 - Dec. 1990), Senior Engineer, at Gould Inc., Advanced Systems Development Division, Senior RF Engineer, Electronic Warfare Engineering Dept. (1986-1988), Senior Engineer at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Aerospace Division, Electronic Warfare Engineering, (1984-1986).

Jeff holds US patents including U.S. Patent number 4,423,393. Granted for "An Octave Band, High Speed, Digital Phase Shifter

RECENT PROJECTS include:

1. Advanced MMW Radar System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, IED detection, for U.S. Government.
2. Multiple independent beam phased array surveillance system for NSA (Paratek subcontractor).
3. Advanced sensor system transceivers for Defense Micro-Electronics Agency (Paratek subcontractor)
4. Integrated, flyaway ESM system manufactured in a sea-container for low observable purposes. U.S. Gov., Ft. Meade MD.
5. Specialized Antenna & Electronics for Hyper-radar, for Harris Technologies, Vienna, VA. Wideband linear array for imaging foliage penetration radar. (Current project)
6. Custom feeds for 20 Meter parabolic antenna, for Morehead State University, Morehead, KY. This is a significant project, funded by the NSF, State of KY, and others to build a 20 meter antenna system at Morehead State University, KY, with all electronics to be redesigned and built by K-MEC. (Current)
7. Navigation Warfare, hardware design in support of classified programs in jamming and ECCM. LF, Inc., Baltimore MD. (Current)
8. Radio Astronomy Receiver System for Morehead State University, Morehead, KY. (Included design and fabrication of 1421 MHz Very low noise front end, and precision low VSWR waveguide adapters, as well as IF chain and back-end DC processors).
9. White Paper on Low Sidelobe Technology Antenna Feeds for The Analytical Sciences Corporation (TASC), Reston, VA.
10. Custom X-Band Dual Channel, Phase-locked, Low noise, Wide Instantaneous bandwidth Downconvertor for flight testing (U.S. Navy - MFA).
11. Novel Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna, U.S. Government.
12. Noise reduction-EMI Suppression Effort for 2.4 GHz Spread Spectrum Wireless Modem, IOWAVE, Washington, D.C.
13. Helical Antenna Feed for Collapsible Dish Antenna (2.2-2.3 GHz), TASC, Reston, VA.
14. Miniature Packet Radio Transceiver/Antenna for Polar Expedition, SPACEQUEST, Fairfax, VA.
15. Three element switched interferometer array for 2.4 GHz surveillance system, Harris Technologies, VA.
16. 900 MHz T/R Switched Power Amplifier for Data Link Extender, MRJ, Oakton, VA.
17. 5.7 GHz Remote Repeater for Video Surveillance Link, SPACEQUEST, Fairfax, VA.
18. Re-Engineering of Spread Spectrum Data Link for Battlefield "Tele-Conferencing" System, Harris Technologies, Vienna, VA.
19. Design, development and production of "Army Advanced Audio Amplifier", U.S. Army, Ft. Meade, MD.
20. Dual Low-noise Phase-locked front end downconverters for L-Band Satellite, Applied Signal Technology, Annapolis Junction, MD.
21. Custom Adapters and Components for Non Standard Size Waveguides, Northrop-Grumman Corp, Baltimore, MD.
22. Anti-jam brassboard processor and testbed, Northrop-Grumman Corp., Baltimore, MD.