GE
Intelligent Platforms
radio and
radar
Leading technology
from a leading company.
You can have the peace of mind that comes
from working with a proven supplier.
As a global leader in the design and manufacture of rugged, high-performance signal
processing electronics, we have the experience and the staying power you’re looking
for. GE Intelligent Platforms is one of the
leading independent suppliers of board-level
‘commercial-off-the-shelf’ (COTS) digital
signal processing components to the global
defense, aerospace and security market.
Our solutions are in use in a wide range
of commercial, military and paramilitary
systems worldwide, including ship and airborne radar systems, fixed and mobile radio
systems, and signals intelligence equipment. Even in operating environments that
are extremely hostile to electronics, we’ve
repeatedly proven that we are up to the task.
Our research and development operations
help to ensure that your solutions remain
at the leading edge of signal processing
technology. Whether it is the advanced
algorithms needed to provide specialized
capabilities, or the integration of the latest
and most powerful FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), we continue to expand what
is possible in signal and sensor processing.
The company is approved to ISO 9001:2000
and AS/EN 9100 for design and manufacture,
and is committed to long-term support of
your application. A full Product Lifecycle
Management package is available for all
products, and it has kept some programs
running for 20 years or more.
RADIO AND RADAR
Exploiting the
digital revolution.
Compact, efficient digital electronics are the brains behind
the latest high-performance radar and radio systems.
As the computing power of digital electronics increases, while their size and weight
decrease for a given performance level, so
does the amount of analog circuitry being
replaced by DSPs and software. Mathematical functions do not add noise. And while
adding a new waveform in an analog radio
means changing the hardware, adding a
new waveform to a digital radio can usually
be accomplished with new software. (Hence
the term Software Defined Radio).
But before a system architect can exploit
the many benefits of software defined radio,
the first requirement is to convert the analog signals to a digital data stream, which
is what GE sensor processing products do.
The key components of our products are
Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) and
Digital to Analog Converters (DACs). These
devices convert analog signals to digital
data streams and vice versa.
Placing ADCs/DACs as close to the antenna
as possible provides the maximum benefit
in terms of software control and flexibility of
the radio, but also requires high frequency
wideband converters with very good signalto-noise ratio (SNR) and spurious-free
dynamic range (SFDR). Although suitable
components do not yet exist to allow many
UHF and higher frequency signals to be
digitized close to the antenna, it is possible to
achieve this with excellent SNR and SFDR for
many VHF and some UHF signals. Processing
signals in higher RF bands requires the use of
analog heterodyne circuits, which adds cost
and reduces the flexibility of the design.
Whatever the case, we have an extensive
selection of product choices available to
the system architect, plus the experience
and engineering capabilities to modify a
standard product to meet a special need or
create an entirely new product if need be.
In addition, because many of our board level
products include FPGAs, they inherently
offer the designer tremendous flexibility.
Transferring technology from
the storefront to the battlefront.
Rugged applications have benefited tremendously
from advances made in ordinary consumer devices.
COTS signal processing silicon has made
dramatic advances in the last few decades
due to the explosive growth of technologies in the consumer marketplace. As a
global rugged COTS provider, we have
exploited many of these technologies in
order to provide system integrators with
board level components.
This has allowed them to design very high
performance radar and radio systems such
as small yet extremely capable tactical
radios (SDR); mobile signals intelligence;
spectrum monitoring; airborne, maritime
and fixed radar systems; RF Test & Measurement and UAV/UUV telemetry systems.
Detecting Improvised
Explosive Devices
The ICS-8552B rugged
IF receiver is used in a
spectrum monitoring
application to detect
and locate IEDs, which
can be detonated with
garage door openers, handheld PCS radios
and cell phones. The range of frequencies is
so wide that the spectrum must be repeatedly scanned to provide coverage.
A tunable analog front end shifts signals
from the low GHz to an intermediate frequency (IF) of 70MHz. The IF is directly digitized by the ICS-8552B, providing a usable
instantaneous bandwidth of 40MHz. This 40
MHz slice of spectrum is passed back to the
host processor, which looks for signals of
interest that can be interrogated using the
narrowband tuner ASICs on the card. The
dual data path memory architecture of the
ICS-8552B permits concurrent acquisition
of the wideband and narrowband signals.
This allows close inspection of interesting
signals and wideband spectrum scanning
to occur simultaneously.
Spectrum Monitoring
In applications such as
spectrum monitoring,
bands of interest may be
several GHz wide, which
exceeds the capabilities of even the fastest
sampling converters. In this situation, the
re-tuning speed of the analog front end
can become the factor limiting system
performance. While front end re-tuning
cannot be eliminated, using a high sample
rate ADC to maximize instantaneous bandwidth can greatly reduce the frequency of
front end adjustments.
For example, the 4-channel ICS-1556 digital
receiver features a very high sampling rate
of up to 400 MHz per channel, and very
high resolution of 14 bits—a combination
that offers unsurpassed performance for
spectrum monitoring applications.
RADIO AND RADAR
Advanced Signals Intelligence
Signals intelligence is one
of the most rapidly growing application areas for
armed forces in many
parts of the world. It is
also a very demanding
application, requiring significant processing power in small, lightweight systems
that consume low power and that can be
deployed in harsh environments.
Our CL11 single board computers and ICS1555A high-speed AD (analog-to-digital)
PMCs are currently being used by a major
global defense contractor to meet these
demands. Our products are integrated into
their signals intelligence solutions to support
intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance
(ISR) information in tactical environments.
Multifunctional Radar
Today’s sophisticated
r adar processing is
reliant on three key
elements:
1. New multi-core
processors that offer increased
computational power within stringent
heat and power constraints;
2. Serial switched fabrics which offer enor-
mous improvements in board-to-board
data transfers so that multiprocessor
configurations are not only more capable,
but also more flexible;
3. A new generation of powerful yet easy-to-
use software tools which has provided
important improvements in developer
productivity.
We offer all these to help you meet growing requirements for scalability, the need to
adapt to constantly changing applications,
and the absolute necessity of fielding new
radar applications as rapidly as possible.
Electronic Countermeasures
Rather than destroy hostile radar, military tacticians may choose to disable them, or feed them
deceptive information.
Electronic intelligence
(ELINT) receivers characterize the radar
and then jam it, or create false returns. For
pulsed radar, front end DSPs can generate a
pulse descriptor word (PDW).
The PDW informs back-end command and
control logic of the hostile radar’s parameters without transmitting all the raw data.
This can reduce ELINT system data traffic
by several orders of magnitude. However,
it requires substantial real-time DSP to be
performed very close to the antenna.
Products like the ICS-8553 allow ELINT
architects to design such systems because
they combine the latest multi-GHz data
converters with massively parallel data
processing resources.
Regardless of your application, we
have invaluable experience to offer.
As a veteran of major programs around the world, we have learned the hard lessons of service in the field. This experience
is incorporated into each of our high-performance boards. For you, this can provide greater peace of mind, and a faster,
smoother path to deployment. With complete confidence, you can choose from PMC, XMC, VPX, and PCI Express
factors, covering sample rates of 100MHz to 3GHz and resolutions from 8 to 16 bits. Plus software support for Windows
VxWorks
design services are also available for product customization, including FPGA cores.
®
, and Linux® and hardware development kits that allow you to insert your own IP for data preprocessing. Custom
Telemetry
6 Moving data from remote
®
form
®
,
sensors to a centralized
decision-making center is
critical for effective battle
space management.
Electronic Countermeasures
6 Our hardware is the basis for
advanced applications designed
to create confusion and false
information.
Surface Scan Radar
6 We offer the tools needed
to develop the latest radar
applications and field them
as rapidly as possible.
Satellite Uplink/Downlink
6 High reliability for satellite
communications in harsh
environments.
Manpacks
6 Our small form factor ADC cards
are ideal for portable applications
that require high performance
during continuous operation.
Spectrum Monitoring
6 Due to its high sampling rate and
high resolution, the ICS-1556
digital receiver offers unparalleled
performance levels.
Video Tracking/Mapping
6 Proven products for one of the fastest-
growing application areas.
GE Intelligent Platforms Contact Information
Americas: 1 800 433-2682 or 1 434 978 5100
Global regional phone numbers are listed by location on our web site at www.ge-ip.com/contact
www.ge-ip.com
©2010 GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. All rights reserved.
All other brands or names are property of their respective holders.
03.10 10M GFA-1326
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