RF & Microwave Electronics

Software-Defined Radio

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Aerospace

EA-37B Compass Call: The US Air Force's New Electronic Attack Aircraft

The U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command received its first EA-37B Compass Call on Aug. 23 for pilot training at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.

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Articles
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Quality Gearing Keeps Mission-Critical Systems Rotating for Combat

Power transmission and gear components must meet extreme performance and reliability demands in order to prove effective on the battlefield. That’s because they are the heart of rotating mechanisms used to rapidly detect threats, home in on targets, and fire projectiles quickly aboard combat vehicles and ships. Read on to learn more about the gear and its uses.

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

This Laser Clock Could Transform Satellite Navigation Accuracy

A new laser clock from the German Aerospace Center has achieved a record level of accuracy for optical clocks with gas cells: in 30 million years, it would be off by just one second. Read on to learn more about it and what it could mean for satellite navigation accuracy.

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

Everyday Life, Improved by Light: GRYPHON’s Photonic Discoveries

GRYPHON will leverage recent developments in nonlinear photonics and photonic-electronic integration to develop microwave sources with noise performance that meets or exceeds that of the best discrete oscillator modules. Read on to learn more about the endeavor.

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Articles
Electronics & Computers

Space Lasers: Aiming Towards Next Leap in Global Communications

Space lasers are transforming the world. Not the far-off future of science fiction, but the universe of how data and communications flow today — everywhere from deep space missions to countless applications here on earth, including consumer internet services, military operations, and banking transactions. Read on to learn more.

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Articles
Energy

To 6G and Beyond: Penn Engineers Unlock the Next Generation of Wireless Communications

In the early 2010s, LightSquared, a startup promising to revolutionize cellular communications, declared bankruptcy. The company couldn’t figure out how to prevent its signals from interfering with those of GPS systems. Now, Penn Engineers have developed a new tool that could prevent such problems from ever happening again: an adjustable filter that can successfully prevent interference, even in higher-frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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Application Briefs
RF & Microwave Electronics

Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System

Hensoldt, Lufthansa Technik Defense, and Bombardier Defense provided a significant program update on the highly-specialized modification work on the Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System (PEGASUS) aircraft at the 2024 Berlin Air Show. Read on to learn more.

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RF & Microwave Electronics

How Sandia’s New Digital Engineering Tool Helps Reimagine Design of Radar Systems

In a whirling geopolitical landscape of new nuclear weapons, hypersonic weapons, drones and satellites, the U.S. is hustling to test new kinds of radars...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

NASA’s Optical Communications Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles

This achievement provides a glimpse into how spacecraft could use optical communications in the future, enabling higher-data-rate communications of complex scientific information as well as high-definition imagery and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.

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RF & Microwave Electronics

UK Flight Test Evaluates "Un-Jammable" Quantum Navigation Systems

In a first-of-its-kind achievement, the U.K. has successfully completed commercial flight trials of advanced quantum-based navigation systems that cannot be jammed or...

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Communications

Army Begins Satcom as a Service Evaluation

The U.S. Army has started fielding commercial satellite communications equipment, bandwidth and services to several units around the globe, under a new pilot that will inform leadership on a...

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Products
Design

New Products

See the new products, including Mercury Systems' Direct RF system-on-module, TT Electronics' LRMAH2512 surface-mount technology shunt resistors, General Micro Systems' 1U and 2U “Shorty 4” servers, Sigma-Netics' thin-walled metal tubes, and much more.

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Articles
Electronics & Computers

Revolutionizing Electronic Warfare: Unleashing the Power of High-Performance Software-Defined Radios

In the ever-evolving landscape of electronic warfare (EW), the imperative for technological prowess has never been more pronounced. At the vanguard of this evolution stands a technological marvel — high-performance software defined radios (SDRs).

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Articles
Information Technology

Design Approaches for Established and Emerging RF Receiver Architectures

Traditionally, heterodyne architectures have been the preferred choice for radio frequency (RF) and millimeter-wave (mmWave) receiver architectures, excelling in noise performance, dynamic range, frequency coverage, selectivity, and reduction of EMI. However, recent advancements in high sample rate analog to digital converters (ADCs) and embedded signal processing have prompted a reassessment of both architectures.

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Articles
Information Technology

Rydberg Technologies Shows Potential of Long-Range RF with Quantum Sensor at NetModX23

Rydberg Technologies demonstrated the use of an atomic receiver for long-range RF applications during the NetModX23 event. Shortly after the completion of the NetModX event, Aerospace & Defense Technology caught up with Rydberg CEO David Anderson to discuss the demonstration of their atomic receiver prototype and the future potential of quantum sensing in real-world military RF applications.

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Briefs
Communications

Advanced Satellite Communications Research

New algorithm strategies and diverse communication techniques are constantly emerging in the telecommunications realm that consumers, commercial, government, and military demand in order to push the boundaries of data throughput to receive information as quickly as possible.

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Key Measurements to Maintain Performance of Critical Electronic Systems on Military Aircraft and Warships

Wireless technology is a critical element of the modern battlefield, making accurate and consistent transmissions of high-speed data essential for mission success. Ensuring wireless system performance has additional challenges when implemented on warships and aircraft.

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Articles
Information Technology

Benefits and Challenges of Direct-RF Sampling for Avionic Platforms

Recent advances in the operation of advanced CMOS processes for extremely high-speed and high dynamic range analog-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analog (DAC) data converters has led to their use in directly sampling microwave and even millimeter wave signals.

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Application Briefs
RF & Microwave Electronics

Next Generation Aerospace Communications

For the first time in 30 years, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland opened the doors to a brand-new mission-focused facility that will support the agency’s Artemis and Advanced Air Mobility missions.

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

How Laser Communications Innovation is Finally Coming of Age and Driving Innovation in Defense

Though laser technology has advantages over radio, and those advantages are growing as innovation accelerates, what is essential to realize is that they need not be in competition.

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Articles
Communications

Assure 5G NTN Performance Before Launch

Simulation and emulation support NTN exploration and testing, verifying current performance while supporting next-generation evolutions.

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Qualification of Multi-Channel Direction Finding Radar Receivers in The Lab

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace selected a radar test setup from Rohde & Schwarz based on the R&S SMW200A vector signal generator for multi-channel phase-coherent radar signal generation.

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Ghoul Tool: The Weapon-Mountable Counter UAS Transmitter

As commercial drone technology continues to expand, small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) are making it increasingly difficult to secure battlefields and military installations.

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Aerospace

Tomahawk Robotics to Develop Flexible Cyber-Secure Radio Systems for US Navy

The U.S. Navy has awarded a $55 million full-rate production contract for its Flexible Cyber Secure Radio (FlexCSR) program to Tomahawk Robotics.

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RF & Microwave Electronics

Air Force Forecasts 2040 Operating Environments in Global Futures Report

The Air Force published its Global Futures Report April 12, assessing four potential operating environments Airmen may have to navigate in before the turn of the...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

What Today’s Advances in Radar Technology Mean for Testing and Training

Technology advancements in RF, digital hardware, active electronically scanned arrays, synthetic aperture radar and cognitive electronic warfare have necessitated advances in test and training systems.

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Tackling Ruggedization Challenges for RF Communications in Software Defined Radios

Software Defined Radios or SDRs are used in a wide variety of design requirements.

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RF & Microwave Electronics

US Army Approves Common Infrared Countermeasure Systems for Early Fielding

Northrop Grumman’s Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) system has achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) with the U.S. Army. With IOC, the U.S. Army...

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INSIDER
Research Lab

Airbus Launches European Defense Fund Research and Development Projects

Airbus has launched two defense research and development projects that it is coordinating as part of the 2021 European Defense Fund (EDF). In July 2022, the European...

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