National Instruments has released the FPGA-enabled PXIe-5785 FlexRIO transceiver, which aims to shorten the design cycle for advanced radar applications in aerospace and defense.
Advances in the use of the electromagnetic spectrum continue to drive military electronics to stay ahead of emerging threats. This evolution brings new challenges for the engineers and scientists designing and testing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
The PXIe-5785 FlexRIO transceiver gives engineers access to the latest direct RF converters in a modular, commercial off-the-shelf package to help them shorten the development cycle. By working closely with major technology vendors, NI has incorporated emerging chipsets, including high-speed converters that sample up to 6.4 GS/s with 12-bit resolution. These high-speed converters are critical for modern radar systems, in which increased RF bandwidth equates to better spatial resolution, leads to fewer false detections and enables sophisticated electronic protection techniques.
The PXIe-5785 FlexRIO transceiver can also sample directly at RF, which simplifies and lowers the cost of high-channel-count systems. This is especially important when building systems such as fully active phased-array radars, in which beams are formed using hundreds or even thousands of antenna elements. And because FlexRIO modules are based on the PXI platform, users can integrate systems and synchronize modules more easily compared to custom designs or alternative form factors, such as VPX.
This latest PXI FlexRIO transceiver is part of a larger family of FlexRIO devices with user-programmable Xilinx UltraScale FPGAs, which help engineers meet custom requirements without the high cost of custom design. To learn more, click here.
