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Aerospace

Fiber Optic Gyroscope Technology Improving Weapons Systems Performance

Autonomous vehicles require gyroscopes for navigation and stabilization of the platform in demanding battlefield, aerospace and undersea environments. Autonomous vehicles...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Making A Case for Modified COTS

In 1992 the Department of Defense (DOD) was exploring ways to reduce the procurement costs and delivery times of equipment purchases having to meet military standards. The development, documentation and...

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Application Briefs
RF & Microwave Electronics

Maintaining Mobility

Fuel is one of the top three logistics drivers on the battlefield, along with water and ammunition. Fuel powers the vehicles that mobilize troops and keep communications and supply chains running, and is used in the...

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Articles
Aerospace

Designing Future Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

So far, defense companies have done a credible job fielding Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), or other water-borne robots to address critical capability...

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Articles
Aerospace

Improving Military Communications Through COTM

Avital component for any military organization is the ability to communicate, share information and provide support for large, mobile groups of personnel anytime, anywhere. Satellite technology is...

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Articles
Electronics & Computers

Multicore Tools for Embedded Systems — Staying Ahead of the Game —

Building a multicore system means dealing with non-determinism. Interactions between tasks running on different cores can occur in a different order, and at a different rate...

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Articles
Electronics & Computers

Redesigning COTS Servers for Military Applications

Military and ISR operations are inundated with vast amounts of data collected from an expanding network of sources, including sensor data from UAS, satellites, and remote monitoring stations....

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Articles
Electronics & Computers

When the Going Gets Tough...

The theaters of operation for marine, air and land vehicles continue to redefine the term “rugged environment.” No longer bound by on-board human operators, autonomous and unmanned military vehicles are now free...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Harnessing FPGAs for Beamforming Software Radio Systems

Over the past 20 years, software defined radio techniques have not only revolutionized radar and communications systems, but they have also boosted system performance levels. One of the...

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Application Briefs
Defense

Flight Simulators Help Train Unmanned Aircraft Crews

L-3 Link Simulation & Training (L-3 Link) recently delivered six additional Predator Mission Aircrew Training Systems (PMATS) and associated support equipment to two U.S. Air Force...

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Application Briefs
Defense

New Wiring Technology Could Reduce EMI Susceptibility in Army Helicopters

Minnesota Wire’s R&D division, Minnovate, has been awarded a Phase One Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract by the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office...

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Application Briefs
Test & Measurement

Low Noise Advances in RF & Microwave Signal Analysis Platforms

Spectrum measurements are essential to RF and microwave testing. The newer signal analyzers available today deliver performance far better than those of just a few years ago. The...

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Articles
Aerospace

New Tools Bring Faster, Simpler Fluid Flow Analysis Into the Engineering Mainstream

Fluid flow is a critical part of defense and aerospace design, whether the product is a rocket’s fuel valve or a tank’s turret-mounted electronics pod....

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Articles
Aerospace

FPGA Software Tests Telescope Microshutters

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the next big telescope at NASA, will be placed at a stable Lagrange point approximately 1 million miles from the Earth. This telescope is the next stepping stone...

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Articles
Aerospace

Advances in High-Frequency PCB Materials

Traditionally, RF/microwave printed circuit board applications were developed based on the needs that came out of the military market. Applications like radar and guidance systems were operating at...

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Articles
Aerospace

Specifying Components for Space Applications

Recently, NASA renewed a decades-old request for grant proposals that call for “faster, better, cheaper” projects. The ultimate agenda is to expedite developments in aerospace capabilities while...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Reliable EMI Shielding Materials and RF Cable Assemblies Ensure High Performance for Handheld Test Instruments

While high-performance test equipment has been used successfully in the laboratory for many years, the trend is moving toward remote...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Passive Devices Designed to Improve Signal-to-Noise Ratios in Defense Electronics

While power architectures of defense electronics are extremely diverse, all have common operational demands: they must be robust (shock, vibration, temperature...

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Articles
Aerospace

UAV Airframes and Missions Drive Embedded Computing Choices

Every branch of the armed forces has a need for capabilities delivered from unmanned aerial vehicle/ unmanned aerial system (UAV/UAS) platforms. These unmanned vehicles have proved...

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Articles
Aerospace

Integrating Formal Methods into Software Toolsets for Avionics Certification

Current practice in certification of avionics systems (e.g. DO-178B1) is centered on testing. The testing process has been prescribed to incorporate a semi-formal...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Microwave Energy Transmission for Aircraft

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are used in many applications to gather intelligence without risking human lives. These aircraft, however, have limited flight time because of their reconnaissance...

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Articles
Energy

Alternative Energy and Propulsion Power for Today's U.S. Military

The U.S. military has the most sophisticated weapons systems in the world, but they are fueled and mechanically powered by old technologies. Given the mission of the U.S....

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Choosing Your RF Design Environment Flow

You can’t build a house without blueprints. So why do so many RF design flows try to build a board without a schematic? Most often, this crude process comes about due to lack of availability of RF...

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Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Antenna Design Considerations

With the advent of prolific wireless communications applications, system designers are in a position to consider the placement and performance of an antenna system. The first step in establishing antenna...

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

CAT Scanner Provides 3D View Inside Nuclear Weapon Components

The Department of Energy’s (DoE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is pursuing a smaller, safer, more secure, and less expensive nuclear weapons complex. Meeting that...

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Articles
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Shortwave Infrared Sensors: A New Way to See

Compact, lightweight, and uncooled imaging sensors are fueling a revolution in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). They are the key enablers for a powerful new breed of...

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Application Briefs
RF & Microwave Electronics

Analysis of On-Chip Heat Distribution in the Design of RF Power Detectors and Transistor Arrays

The simulation of electromagnetic (EM) and thermal properties of semiconductor and substrate materials has been demonstrated to be particularly...

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Articles
Aerospace

Improved Interference Rejection Using Multi-Static Radar Signal Processing

In multi-static radar (MSR), the transmit/ receive aperture is divided into a number of sub-apertures that can be placed in various locations relative to each other....

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Articles
Aerospace

USB-to-Synchronous Cable Enables IP Data Communications for Tactical Radios

Warfighters can benefit greatly from having radio IP-based data communications at the theater level. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the 750,000 tactical radio...

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