Military/Aerospace Electronics

Companies are constantly making military/aerospace electronic components smaller, sturdier, more powerful, and more precise. Below is a list of devices targeting the military/aerospace market.

Analog/Digital ICs

Hittite Microwave (Chelmsford, MA) offers the HMC463LH250 GaAs PHEMT MMIC low-noise distributed amplifier and the HMC561LP3(E) GaAs MIMIC x 2 active frequency multiplier which are ideal for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint radios, VSAT, telecom, test instrumentation, radar, EW, ECM, space and fiber-optic applications from 2 to 21 GHz. The HMC463LH250 provides 13-dB gain, 3-dB noise figures, and 18-dBm of output power at 1-dB compression, while drawing only 60 mA from a 5-V supply. The HMC561LP3(E), when driven by a 5-dBm signal, provides 14-dBm typical output power from 8 to 21 GHz.

Hittite Microwave MMICs

Targeting applications such as synthetic-aperture and phased-array radar, software-defined radio, signal intelligence, and semiconductor and medical imaging, the MM-7105, MM-7110, and MM-7115 CoSine FPGA PMC compute nodes from Micro Memory (Chatsworth, CA) offer over 89K FPGA slices, with certain configurations exceeding 156K FPGA Slices and include over 600 Xtreme DSP slices. The MM-7105 includes the V-4 LX200 FPGA from Xilinx, while the MM-7110 combines the LX200 with a SX55, and the MM-7115 combines the LX200 with a LX160.

Micro Memory’s CoSine FPGA PMC compute nodes

Honeywell (Minneapolis, MN) has developed a radiation-hardened microprocessor , the RHPPC, for space borne electronic systems which is based on the Freescale Semiconductor 603e Power PC processor. The part utilizes all commercial power PC603e developments tools and operating system software. The company has also developed the HXNV0100 one-million bit non-volatile static memory component for strategic space electronic applications. The magnetic RAM runs from a 3.3 V, offers unlimited read/write cycles, and uses the company’s 150-nm SOI CMOS technology.

QMLV-qualified for space-level applications, the LMP2012WGLQMLV dual-precision op amp from National Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA) is ideal for satellite applications such as attitude and orbital controls, sun and inertial sensors, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, static earth sensing, bolometers and earth observation systems. Features include a CMRR and PSRR ratings of 90 dB, an input voltage from 2.7 to 5 V, an input offset voltage of 60 µV over the extended temperature range of 55 to 125C, a slew rate of 4V/µs and a gain-bandwidth of 3 MHz for accurate signal amplification. Other key specifications include input-referred voltage noise of 35 nV/√Hz and open-loop gain greater than 100 dB.

National’s LMP2012WGLQMLV dual precision op amp

Actel (Mountain View, CA) offers the low-power RTAX-SL FPGA family for space-flight applications which features a standby current that draws 50% less power that the company’s RTAX-S architecture. Other features include embedded memory, SEU-hardened flip-flops, high I/O count, hermetic packaging, and multiple I/O standard support.

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Sampling at 125 Msamples/s, the quad 12-bit ADS6425 and the 14-bit ADS6445 A/D converters from Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) feature enhanced resolution for object tracking and discrimination in radar systems. The parts measures 9 x 9 mm.

QP Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA) offers the QPV2500BQ family of high-speed CPLDs, which are available in either full military or industrial grade versions and are housed in 44-pin LLCC or JLCC and 40-pin DIP. They are fully qualified replacements of Atmel’s ATV2500 BQ family of CPLDs.

QP Semiconductor’s QPV2500BQ high-speed CPLDs

Components

The Electronics Group of Crane Aerospace & Electronics (Redmond, WA) offers the MWR series of triple-output dc/dc converters, which operate over an input range from 14 to 50 Vdc and offer an output noise, typically around 0.5% up to 20-MHz bandwidth.

The converters’ 3.3-V main output with ±12- or ±15-V auxiliary outputs allows the user to power both digital (3.3 V) and analog (±12 or ±15 V) from the same converter. The devices measure 1.950 x 1.350 x 0.415 in and operates from –55° to 125°C.

Components

Offered to expand the capabilities of industry-standard MIL-PRF-55310/27 clock oscillators into the space market, the 5116 VCXO from Vectron International (Mount Holly Springs, PA) is radiation tolerant to 100 kRads(Si) total dose. Features include four-point crystal mount and swept quartz, choice of class S or class B screening IAW MIL-PRF-55310, a nominal frequency of 1 to 85 MHz, and an absolute pull range of ±50 ppm.

Vectron’s 5116 VCXO

IRC (Corpus Christi, TX) has qualified its TMC series of general-purpose thick-film military chip resistors to “R” level military requirements and conform to MIL-PRF-55342 standards. Resistance ranges from 5.62 Ω to 1 MΩ for the 1206 chip, and 5.62 Ω to 15 MΩ for the 2010 and 2512 packages. Temperature range is –55° to 150°C.

Development Tools/Software

The TADS-i960 development tool from DDC-I (Phoenix, AZ) provides a comprehensive environment for developing, compiling, and debugging Ada applications for the i960 processor. The tool’s compiler offers i960 instructions, such as branch-and-link and instruction scheduling while its debugger provides point-and-click multiwindow symbolic debugging at both the Ada source and assembly language level.

The Mathworks (Natick, MA) offers Aerospace Blockset 2.3 design tool which extends Simulink with blocks for modeling and simulating aircraft, spacecraft, rocket and propulsion systems, as well as unmanned airborne vehicles. The product also includes blocks that implement mathematical representations from aerospace standards, common references, and first principles.

Boards

Aitech Defense Systems (Chatsworth, CA) has expanded its c900 series of rugged 3U CompactpCI single-board computers with the C903, available in both rugged air- or conduction-cooled versions. It features up to 1-Gbyte DDR SDRAM (with ECC protections) in addition to 128 Mbytes of standalone user flash. The board also include 64 Mbytes of boot flash and up to 2 Gbytes of NAND flash file memory for mass storage, with an additional 128 Kbytes of NVRAM.

Aitech Defense Systems C903

Targeting applications such as synthetic-aperture and phased-array radar, software-defined radio, signal intelligence, and semiconductor and medical imaging, the MM-7105, MM-7110, and MM-7115 CoSine FPGA PMC compute nodes from Micro Memory (Chatsworth, CA) offer over 89K FPGA slices, with certain configurations exceeding 156K FPGA Slices and include over 600 Xtreme DSP slices. The MM-7105 includes the V-4 LX200 FPGA from Xilinx, while the MM-7110 combines the LX200 with a SX55, and the MM-7115 combines the LX200 with an LX160.

Cable/communications parts

By replacing multiple connectors, ITT Electronic Components (Santa Ana, CA) offers mixed-signal cable assemblies that ensure complete EMI shielding effectiveness. These assemblies enable digital power, high voltage, and RF signals to all be packaged in one micro interconnect assembly, and harnesses can feature multicable configurations with different breakout schemes.

National Hybrid (Ronkonkoma, NY) offers the NHI-PBGA family of Mil-Std 1553 data bus interface in a footprint of less than 0.6-in2 . This part is targeted for high-volume defense markets such as GPS-guided vehicles, allowing sophisticated programmed instructions and data to be downloaded from stationary or airborne control centers.

Designed for harsh military environments, the Barracuda human interface machine from Kontron (San Diego, CA) has a sunlight-readable 15-in. display, is operational in a 0 to 50C environment, and offers a 30C option for use in low-temperature extremes. Optional water- and dust-tight circular military-rated connectors allow for harsh-environment connectivity.

Kontron’s human interface machine

Cable

By replacing multiple connectors, ITT Electronic Components (Santa Ana, CA) offers mixed-signal cable assemblies that ensure complete EMI shielding effectiveness. These assemblies enable digital power, high voltage, and RF signals to all be packaged in one micro interconnect assembly, and harnesses can feature multicable configurations with different breakout schemes.

ITT’s mixed-signal cable assemblies Christina Nickolas