APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2
4. Electronics (S)
Electronics research and development activities, although somewhat restricted by decreasing fiscal allocations in recent years, are comparable in quality to those of other leading Western European countries. Highly competent scientists conduct electronics research at universities, industrial enterprises, and military establishments. Sweden is very active in military and commercial electronics development, and the government strongly supports laboratories and schools for this purpose. Applied research, some of it under contract for military agencies and for private industry, is done at laboratories attached to the various technical institutes and colleges. The two world-renowned technical institutes in Sweden, the KTH and GTH, have modern facilities where much electronics research and development are carried out. The most important industrial electronics research facility is the L.M. Ericsson Telephone Corporation, which has large modern research laboratories located at the site of the main factory in Midsommarkransen. A new development company, BELLEMTEL, has been formed to do specialized research and development, concentrating on advanced electronic communications systems and products; it is owned jointly by the L.M. Ericsson Corporation and the Swedish Telecommunications Administration, the government agency in charge of communications. Department FOA-3 is concerned exclusively with military electronics research and development and has done work in communications, electronic countermeasures (ECM), sonar, guidance, radar, lasers, and other electro-optic efforts, and in component developments.
The KTH has been investigating broadband countermeasure devices and reportedly is doing good work in plasma, Gunn, and avalanche semiconductor research. A considerable effort has been undertaken by KTH and others in fluidics research, but, because of failures of several ambitious programs, researchers are developing their technology from the basics. The field of fluidics is attracting the attention of control systems developers, and research is underway on such items as fluid amplifiers and vortex rate gyroscopes.
Sweden has made valuable contributions in instrumentation for macromolecular research, such as the Svedberg ultracentrifuge and the Tiselius electrophoresis apparatus. Other developments of significance have included Hannes Alfven's "trochotron," a stepping-beam switching tube; a three-level, solid-state maser; and ferrite one-way attenuators for wave guides and steerable antenna systems. Research also is being conducted on radar backscattering, medium gain antennas, and phased arrays.
An intensive development effort is underway on semiconductors. Sweden has made significant contributions to semiconductor technology through ion-implantation work with silicon and germanium. Considerable research is underway involving thin-films and flatpack miniaturized components for future communication systems.
Research is being conducted on cryotrons, microwave action in plasmas, methods of producing long-life electron tubes and transistors, and techniques of increasing the data rate to bandwidth ratio. Other projects have been concerned with analyzing and synthesizing p-n transistors, with low-noise amplifiers for radioastronomy applications, and with O-type carcinotrons with bifilar helices. Other subjects of interest have included parametric traveling-wave amplifiers, traveling-wave masers, very-low-frequency (VLF) propagation, and tropospheric scatter techniques.
A broad program of military electronics research is underway. Microwave tubes developed for military applications include 1-band spin-tuned magnetrons for frequency-agile radar, high-power wide-band traveling-wave tubes and crossed-field amplifiers for advanced ECM applications, and phased-locked magnetrons for coherent intercept radar. Other military developments have included an improved airborne infrared camera; fuel cell power supplies; fire-control systems for air, ground, and sea applications; and missile-fuzing systems employing both optical and radar principles. Research and development are continuing on proximity fuzes, laser-diode fuzes, and an optical communications device.
Philips Teleindustri AB in Stockholm has undertaken extensive programs in the development of frequency-agile radars and is considered a leader in this particular field. Emphasis continues to be placed on improving system advantages to further reduce problems caused by sea/ground clutter, fading, jamming, and mutual interference. New programs have centered on developing frequency-agile equipment in gun fire-control systems. The FOA has developed a combination search-and-track radar used by the Swiss-produced fire-control system, Skyguard.
A number of Swedish-built laser devices are available for military use and are being evaluated, tested, and given limited deployment. These include a variety of ruby and neodymium-glass laser rangefinders for man-portable field artillery use, tank-mounted use, and airborne systems. The rangefinders'
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2
