With the advancements in technologies and growing technical prowess among world powers and organizations, future conflicts or battles will largely be decided on the electromagnetic battle space. And while this battle-space becomes more densely occupied and new threat methodologies are developed, the need for more capable threat simulation emitters systems becomes very important. This year’s AOC EW Europe Convention will be highlighting this very impact of the electromagnetic battle space and the latest advancements and requirements.
The stakes are high and domination of the electromagnetic battle space will determine the winner of conflicts, not the dominant air power. The technology scenario is not unlike the development of the airplane, its value not quickly appreciated. Figuratively the world is moving from the bi-plane to the mono plane. But that’s not enough, tactics need development and new systems require tiers of development and complex testing.
High Power Solid State Advances in Technology
Advances in semiconductor RF device technology are widely communicated and well known within the EW (electronic warfare) community. What’s not widely known is how the latest developments in high speed programmable cores, ADC’s / DAC’s, DSP, fiber optics, and electro-mechanical devices can be utilized in the architecture of high power solid state transmitter in ways that significantly advance the state of the art for mission critical high power systems.
The following examples are amplifier capabilities that are alarmingly within reach:
- 0.1 dB output power accuracy out of the box, no more “cal factors” in your own external lookup table, no external power metering required
- Pre-loaded mission profiles including barrage, frequency hopping, multi-tone
- Input pulse shape matching
- Software defined architecture allows customized mission scenario’s
- Digital output filtering
The concern, however is, who will be first to develop the equivalent of the laminar flow wing of the P51 Mustang and mate it with the Rolls Royce Merlin engine? But if your team talks about functions you want in your high power transmitting amplifier then you are on the right path.
Leading developer of High Power Solid State RF & Microwave Amplifiers, Empower RF Systems will be exhibiting at this year’s AOC Electronic Warfare Europe Convention in Stockholm, Sweden at Booth E17 from May 13-15. The company will be conducting remote live demonstrations of its broadband, high power 1KW, 1 to 3 GHz amplifier. The amplifier will be housed at the company headquarters in Los Angeles and viewed in the AOC exhibit venue with live streaming video while remotely controlling the amplifier from the exhibit floor through a standard web browser.
At the convention, there will also be the company CTO, Paulo Correa, who will be talking on High Power Solid State Advances in Technology. In this technical session he will describe the variety of latest technology developments and how when implemented together they create solid state alternatives for higher power, higher frequency transmitters. Paulo will present his on Track 2, Wednesday May 15th, 11:55 – 12:15.
Paulo Correa is Empower RF’s CTO with 41 years of experience in RF and microwave with past roles including Director of Advanced Studies at Thales and CTO at Thomson Broadcast and Multimedia. With 13 patents to his name, he is also the architect of Empower’s intelligent and flexible Next Generation series of amplifiers.
