FPGA-based 3U VPX DSP module with on-board A/D and D/A converters introduced by GE for electronic warfare applications
March 2, 2011
Editor's note: GE Intelligent Platforms changed its name to Abaco Systems on 23 Nov. 2015 as a result of the company's acquisition last September by New York-based private equity firm Veritas Capital.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., 2 March 2011. GE Intelligent Platforms in Charlottesville, Va., is introducing the SPR870A 3U VPX wideband digital receiver and exciter module for wideband signal-acquisition and -conversion applications such as radar electronic counter measures (ECM), pulse intercept and analysis electronic intelligence, and RF test and measurement.
The digital signal processing (DSP) board is based on the Xilinx Virtex-6 field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Electronic warfare applications for the SPR870A include spoofing hostile radar -- allowing the host to change its perceived characteristics, for example, to confuse enemy intelligence -- or for jamming remote-control IED (improvised explosive device) signals, enabling bombs to be defused more safely, GE officials say.
"Its performance and wide bandwidth make it far more capable than typical software defined radio platforms, while offering significant flexibility in the breadth of applications it can address," says Rob McKeel, president of military and aerospace embedded computing at GE Intelligent Platforms.
"Legacy systems use carefully tuned analog components to determine key transmitter identification parameters such as instantaneous frequency, and modulation rate," McKeel explains. "The SPR870A allows these parameters to be measured using DSP techniques rather than analog circuits, making them much faster, more accurate and more flexible. Waveforms can be stored as they are received, used as raw data to generate false returns, and played back on demand."
The rugged and conduction-cooled SPR870A digitizes analog input signals from below 50 MHz to over 1.5 GHz, using a dual channel 10-bit A/D converter and two 12-bit D/A converters, and (re)creating analog output waveforms over a similar frequency range.
For more information contact GE Intelligent Platforms online at www.ge-ip.com.
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
