Military/AerospaceElectronics

The United States has been the world’s largest producer and marketplace in aerospace and aviation since the early twentieth century. The U.S. aerospace industry was highly successful in 2006, according to Electronics.ca Publications research company, with total deliveries projected to surpass $184 Billion, up at more than 8% from $170 billion in 2005. According to the research China, India, and Brazil will remain the potential importing destination for the aerospace industry of the U.S.

PowerEndicott Research Group (ERG) (www.ergpower.com) introduced two Smart Force LED driver boards for industrial LCDs. Both provide LED drivers with dimming, input voltage, and brightness and enable control. The SFDL Series driver board provides a maximum 180 mA to LED rails used in 12-in. LCDs. The SFDC Series driver board has a maximum of 1000 mA for HBLED backlight rails used in LCDs up to 20.1 in.

Smart Force LED driver boards from Endicott Research Group

The Actel (www.actel.com) radiation-tolerant RTAX-SL FPGA family is a low-power device that targets high-reliability space-flight designs. The device provides approximately 50% lower standby current of the standard product at worst-case conditions. Gate densities of the FPGA extend from 250,000 to 4 million equivalent system gates and also have 840 user I/Os. It offers radiation performance, embedded memory, SEU-hardened flip-flops, high I/O count, multiple I/O standard support, and hermetic packaging.

Actel’s RTAX-SL FPGA family

The Saft (www.saftbatteries.com) BA 5590 battery is one of the U.S. military’s most widely used portable energy sources, powering many types of communication devices used in combat throughout the armed services. The lithium sulfur dioxide chemistry is the most commonly used lithium technology with a significant proven record in combat situations.

Saft’s BA 5590 battery

Intersil (www.intersil.com) launched a vendor item drawing (VID) compliance program with power management devices for the military/high-reliability marketplaces. The first products include the ISL884xA family of six PWM controllers that feature fast signal switching and output switching and operate at 30 V with a 2-MHz switching frequency. They are suitable for applications such as non-isolated boost, isolated flyback and forward dc/dc converters. Also offered are the ISL6420BMAEP, a single synchronous buck PWM controller and the ISL65426MREP dual synchronous buck PWM controller with independent enable pins, digital soft-start, and 1-MHz switching frequency.

Intersil’s ISL884xA family of six PWM controllers TrainingFor untethered dismounted infantry training, Quantum 3D’s (www.quantum3d.com) ExpeditionDI COTS man-wearable immersive platform is combined with Bohemia Interactive’s VBS2 software. The platformt enables marines, soldiers, and police to participate in individual and collective synthetic environment training and mission rehearsal exercises without being tethered to computer systems, trackers, or other types of facility infrastructure. It provides natural movement and interaction through a wide range of virtual environments while conducting infantry or SWAT-related tasks including target engagement and physical actions including crawling, walking, running, climbing stairs, opening doors, and throwing grenades.Fapopa07_jan2008 Quantum 3D’s ExpeditionDI COTS man-wearable immersive platform Embedded systemsALT Software (www.altsoftware.com), DiSTI (www.disti.com), Green Hills Software (www.ghs.com) and RTI (www.rti.com) offer a technology integration for the design and implementation of real-time, safety-critical distributed systems for defense and aerospace applications. The combination of these technologies provides a solution for mission-critical data distribution and display. Fapopa02_jan2008 Real-time integrated avionics network from ALT Software, DiSTI, Green Hills, and RTI.

The companies have demonstrated a real-time avionics display rendered on a Freescale Media5200 reference platform and controlled remotely from a Windows XP system. The Media5200 target board is running the Green Hills Software Integrity RTOS with output to a dynamic avionics human-machine interface (HMI) created using DiSTI GL Studio and powered by ALT Software OpenGL graphics drivers.

Remote-control and data access across the network leverages RTI Data Distribution Service middleware. The result is a real-time integrated avionics network for next-generation designs in the cockpit for remotely piloted vehicles as well as other defense and aerospace applications.

ConnectorsITT Electronic Components (www.ittcannon.com) offers the TMDMP filter, a Micro-D connector that uses an internal filter design, providing the density needed to accommodate the ferrite tubes necessary for Pi filtering in military and aerospace applications. It can mate with MIL-DTL-83513 and is suitable for integrated avionics and electronic warfare, satellites and space systems, radar and sensors, weapon controls and targeting systems. The filter connector is available in five sizes with contacts for both sockets and pins. The connector features rugged aluminum shells, and soldering to the printed wiring board.DisplayAn innovative way to make LED-backlit TFT LCDs compatible with Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVIS) is available from Apollo Display Technologies (www.apollodisplays.com). The technology supplies VGA- and XGA-resolution TFT LCDs backlit by LED rails that are addressable via an industrial controller board to switch back and forth between day and night mode. These LCDs can be used in the full range of NVIS applications, including displays in military aircraft cockpits, tanks, trucks, ground mobile applications, communications equipment, electronics, and a broad range of other applications.Fapopa01_jan2008 Night Vision Imaging Systems from Apollo Display Technologies

The DIN-BAR bargraph featuring the Otek (www.otekcorp.com) monolithic automatic tricolor bargraph and four digits can be vertically or horizontally mounted. It is NEMA compliant, has 51 automatic tricolor segments that change colors, dim, blink and have pointers. The serial I/O allows the bargraph to be used as stand alone, digital panel meter, serial input remote display, or part of SCADA/DCS.

Paul O’Shea