RF Military Electronics Featured Articles
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Changing EW Environment Requires Even Higher RF Power
9/20/2010
The theme of AOC’s 47th Annual International Symposium and Convention is "Electronic Warfare in a Changing Environment." One aspect of the EW environment that’s changing rapidly is the increased sophistication and persistence of threat radars. Today’s threat radar detection systems must rapidly discriminate between real targets and those created by digital RF memories (DRFMs). A DRFM captures signals, digitizes them, reconverts them to their analog origin, and then rebroadcasts them, usually after modifying the signal based on a library of known emitters. The rebroadcast signal can be altered to change the target’s radar cross-section, range, speed, angle of arrival, and direction. It can also create false targets behind the target (reactive jamming) and ahead of it (predictive jamming) to trick radar detection systems into mislocating or misidentifying the target. By Joe Hajduk, dB Control
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White Paper: Gallium Nitride (GaN) Microwave Transistor Technology For Radar Applications
9/10/2010
By Aethercomm This paper reviews the relative merits of Si, GaAs, SiC, and GaN materials and describes how the attributes of each impact the operation of microwave transistors for the generation of high RF output power, on the order of hundreds to thousands of watts, as necessary for radar systems. It is shown that the superior physical attributes of GaN lead to microwave transistors that are extremely well suited for high-power applications.
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Gallium Nitride (GaN) Microwave Transistor Technology For Radar Applications
9/10/2010
This paper reviews the relative merits of Si, GaAs, SiC, and GaN materials and describes how the attributes of each impact the operation of microwave transistors for the generation of high RF output power, on the order of hundreds to thousands of watts, as necessary for radar systems. It is shown that the superior physical attributes of GaN lead to microwave transistors that are extremely well suited for high power applications. The superior properties of GaN combined with modern high efficiency biasing techniques make GaN technology a prime candidate for use in transmitters for radar systems. By AetherComm
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Technical Report: A Reliability Examination Of Lead-Free Quartz Crystal Products Using Surface-Mount Technology Engineered For Harsh Environments
12/8/2009
As the electronics industry moves toward the implementation and use of lead-free solders, very little is known about the reliability of quartz crystal controlled products of lead free construction. Such products include quartz controlled crystals, filters, and oscillators which demand high reliability in a variety of space, military, automotive, and commercial applications. Quartz crystal products are used in numerous space and military applications, which mandate compliance to specified military test profiles. Therefore, reliability test profiles were selected from MIL-STD-202 and MILSTD-883 test documents in an effort to apply stress conditions that accelerate potential failure mechanisms and to gain a better understanding of any detected failure modes. By Todd H. Treichel, CQE, Precision Devices, Inc.
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A Reliability Examination Of Lead-Free Quartz Crystal Products Using Surface-Mount Technology Engineered For Harsh Environments
12/8/2009
As the electronics industry moves toward the implementation and use of lead-free solders, very little is known about the reliability of quartz crystal controlled products of lead free construction. Such products include quartz controlled crystals, filters, and oscillators which demand high reliability in a variety of space, military, automotive, and commercial applications. Quartz crystal products are used in numerous space and military applications, which mandate compliance to specified military test profiles. Therefore, reliability test profiles were selected from MIL-STD-202 and MILSTD-883 test documents in an effort to apply stress conditions that accelerate potential failure mechanisms and to gain a better understanding of any detected failure modes. By Todd H. Treichel, CQE, Precision Devices, Inc.
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Advances In S-Band Radar Technology: Reducing Overall System Cost Through Higher Levels Of Integration
11/9/2009
The S-band has long been an application space servicing both commercial and military radars. Many of the radar systems required very high peak power levels with low to medium pulse widths that were best served by silicon bipolar technology. In the last few years the trend in radar systems requires longer pulse widths and some measure of linearity. Leveraging their long history in the S-band and RF expertise, the designers at Integra developed another product that offers a complete 50 ohm RF power solution in a single package. Miniaturized Power Amplifiers utilizing LDMOS (MPALs) are matched to 50 ohms at the package leads and only need a bias circuit to complete the solution. By Brian D. Battaglia, Jeff Burger, and John Titizian, <%=company1%>
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White Paper: Advances In S-Band Radar Technology: Reducing Overall System Cost Through Higher Levels Of Integration
11/9/2009
The S-band has long been an application space servicing both commercial and military radars. Many of the radar systems required very high peak power levels with low to medium pulse widths that were best served by silicon bipolar technology. In the last few years the trend in radar systems requires longer pulse widths and some measure of linearity. Leveraging their long history in the S-band and RF expertise, the designers at Integra developed another product that offers a complete 50 ohm RF power solution in a single package. Miniaturized Power Amplifiers utilizing LDMOS (MPALs) are matched to 50 ohms at the package leads and only need a bias circuit to complete the solution. By Brian D. Battaglia, Jeff Burger, and John Titizian, <%=company1%>
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Integration Creates Compact CDMA RF Front End With GPS Capability
11/9/2009
The worldwide cell phone market is large and very competitive. Even during the 2009 economic downturn, forecasts for worldwide cell phone shipments are expected to reach 1.1 billion units with over 300 million shipments in the final quarter of 2009. Consumers now demand long talk-time in tandem with more capability, such as GPS and multimedia. Selecting a long-term, reliable vendor with the best technology and system knowledge that can integrate the technology into a compact, low-cost design is essential in the fast moving mobile communications market where a missed market cycle can lead to lost market share. In this article, design requirements, best practice PCB layout, component selection and system design are addressed. A highly integrated CDMA plus GPS RF front end design with measured performance characteristics is used as a concrete example. By Allen Chien, Saul Espino, and Won Kyu Kim, Avago Technologies
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White Paper: Integration Creates Compact CDMA RF Front End With GPS Capability
11/9/2009
The worldwide cell phone market is large and very competitive. Even during the 2009 economic downturn, forecasts for worldwide cell phone shipments are expected to reach 1.1 billion units with over 300 million shipments in the final quarter of 2009. Consumers now demand long talk-time in tandem with more capability, such as GPS and multimedia. Selecting a long-term, reliable vendor with the best technology and system knowledge that can integrate the technology into a compact, low-cost design is essential in the fast moving mobile communications market where a missed market cycle can lead to lost market share. In this article, design requirements, best practice PCB layout, component selection and system design are addressed. A highly integrated CDMA plus GPS RF front end design with measured performance characteristics is used as a concrete example. By Allen Chien, Saul Espino, and Won Kyu Kim, Avago Technologies
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An Innovative Approach In The Design Of Fast-Switching Microwave Synthesizers
11/5/2009
The frequency synthesizer is a key element of virtually any microwave measurement setup. It generates a stimulus signal or is used as a local oscillator on the receiver side. Phase noise and spurious generated by the frequency synthesizer are critical parameters that impose the ultimate limit in the system’s ability to resolve signals of small amplitude. Another key parameter of the synthesizer that impacts overall system performance is the frequency switching speed. The time spent by the synthesizer transitioning between frequencies becomes increasingly valuable since it cannot be used for data processing. This article presents a compact, broadband frequency synthesizer module, which covers 0.1 to 10 GHz frequency range with a 0.001 Hz step size. By Alexander Chenakin, Suresh Ojha, and Iqbal Sihra, Phase Matrix, Inc.