military aerospace

TRENDSTHE MAGAZINE OF TRANSFORMATION IN ELECTRONIC AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY

W W W . M I L A E R O . C O M

AUGUST 2006 VOL. 16, NO. 8

U.S. and its allies get serious about systems interoperability

JOHN KELLEREditor in Chief

It’s one thing to talk about electronic and electro-op-

tic systems interoperability among the U.S. military, allied forces, ci-vilian law enforcement, and first responders. Actually doing some-thing about it is quite another.

Recent international exercises involving U.S. and allied military forces, as well as police depart-ments and fi rst responders, are fi -nally getting the idea across that military leaders are getting very serious about interoperability.

Th e notion of interoperability among radios, command-and-control (C2) systems, and data networks has been a hot topic of discussion since at least 1983 dur-ing the U.S. invasion of the Ca-ribbean island of Grenada. U.S. forces made news then when they resorted to public telephones and AT&T calling cards to request air support when their military radios didn’t work with others in their task force.

Aft er that well-publicized em-barrassment, interoperability was on the lips of anyone in the U.S. military who was even slightly concerned about voice and data communications. Among the re-sults of these discussions were the U.S. Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System, otherwise known as SINCGARS, and the fu-ture Joint Tactical Radio System.

Despite technological progress such as this, however, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, painfully demonstrated that federal and lo-cal authorities still had a long way to go to achieve anything resem-bling across-the-board communi-cations interoperability.

One of the most painful and frustrating lessons of 9/11 involved offi cers of the New York Police De-partment who from helicopters saw evidence of the imminent col-

Continued on page 12

BY COURTNEY E. HOWARDCEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa—Rockwell Collins Inc. in Cedar Rap-ids, Iowa, has acquired the simulation assets of Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.,

a maker of visual simulation solutions for military and commercial use that is based in Salt Lake City.

In the transaction, Rock-well Collins gained Evans &

Sutherland’s simulation facilities in Salt Lake City, Orlando, Fla., and the United Kingdom in exchange for $71.5 mil-lion in cash. Rockwell Collins also received exclusive rights to the Evans & Sutherland laser projector for sim-ulation applications.

Roughly 200 of the 275 Evans & Sutherland employees have joined the Rockwell Collins

Continued on page 8

BY JOHN MCHALEWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.—In the military and the commercial world, electronic system de-signers want more and more processing performance out of computer chips, yet heat from these super chips creates a lot of headaches for the engineers tasked with keeping computer boards cool.

Researchers at Purdue Uni-versity in West Lafayette, Ind., are looking to mitigate the

heating problem through the use of carbon nanotubes, which resemble tiny cylinders. They have created carpets of micro-scopic nanotubes to enhance the performance of heat sinks to help keep future chips from overheating.

Researchers are trying to de-velop new types of thermal in-terface materials that move heat more efficiently than conven-tional materials to meet cooling

Purdue researchers look at nanotechnology to reduce computer-chip heating

Continued on page 9

BY JOHN MCHALECHATSWORTH, Calif.—Leaders at Aitech De-fense Systems Inc. in Chatsworth, Calif., are bringing the economic strategy that changed military procurement to the space market.

The commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Defense more than a decade ago, brought new economies of scale to the defense mar-ket. Defense programs were directed to buy commercial technology wherever and whenever possible—ensuring the lat-est technology at the best cost.

Yet certain harsh environments pre-cluded the use of commercial parts with-out signifi cant testing and qualifi cation. Th e last frontier for COTS is space, says Doug Patterson, vice president of sales and marketing for AiTech.

Traditionally the space market has had a “grow your own” approach, which can be very costly because customers are buying parts in very low volumes, Patterson says. Companies such as BAE Systems and Hon-eywell charge exorbitant amounts because

they have to pay so much for the product and for testing. Aitech faces the same test-ing cost, but because “we buy parts in bulk that amortizes the cost and we pass that savings on to our customer,” he explains.

Aitech’s radiation-tolerant, space-quali-fi ed single-slot, 3U Compact (cPCI) single-board computer (SBC) is an example. Th e board provides an increase in performance of as much as fi ve times and a cost reduc-

tion of as much as two times when compared to the point-driven, pur-

posed-based designs currently in use, Patterson says.

Aitech engineers perform the space-qual-ifi cation testing at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind., a NASA-certifi ed facility, Patterson says. Th e motto is “test what you fl y and fl y what you test,” he adds.

Rockwell Collins expanded the of-ferings in its simulation and training product line with technology such as the simulation above acquired from Evans & Sutherland.

Rockwell Collins completes acquisition of Evans & Sutherland simulation business


The cost-saving S950 3U board from Aitech is fl ying aboard the International Space Station.

Aitech brings COTS to space

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SPECIAL REPORT

NEWS

www.milaero.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS August 2006 3

CONTENTS NEWS IN BRIEF PAGE 4

OPINION Design considerations for employing electronic slip rings in mission-critical military systems PAGE 14

ELECTRO-OPTICS WATCHNorthrop Grumman readies laser-based anti-missile system for operational deployment PAGE 16

L-3 Communications Cincinnati Electronics provides thermal imagers for MK46 optical sight system PAGE 16

PRODUCT INTELLIGENCE Manufacturers of FPGA programming tools struggle to meet the new demands of designers PAGE 20

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Electronics designers grapple with lead-free solder guidelines The European Union WEEE/RoHS directives cause concern in the military and aerospace market as to the availability and reliability of lead-free electronic components. PAGE 24

PRODUCT APPLICATIONS PAGE 37

NEW PRODUCTS PAGE 39

FINISH LINE PAGE 42

Boeing receives second production order for Combat Survivor Evader Locater program

New ship takes lead in countermine and anti-submarine warfare The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship will use a broad range of autonomous and semiautonomous surface and subsurface vehicles, as well as advanced networking communications, to bring the nation’s anti-submarine and countermine warfare capabilities to bear against terrorists as well as conventional foes in dangerous coastal waters. PAGE 28

BY COURTNEY E. HOWARDST. LOUIS—Boeing Integrated Defense Sys-tems in St. Louis won its second full-rate production contract for the Combat Sur-vivor Evader Locater (CSEL) communica-tions system. Th e second order calls for Boeing to supply 2,645 CSEL units and support equipment to the U.S. Air Force.

Th e CSEL handheld survival radio is designed to provide line-of-sight recov-ery forces and joint search-and-rescue teams with two-way, secure data com-munications. In fact, by using CSEL, res-cue forces are able to authenticate and communicate information with isolated personnel virtually anywhere the world.

“Using communications satellites and global positioning technology, CSEL ra-dios will save lives by providing real-time encrypted information about the precise location of isolated personnel such as downed pilots,” says Michael Bates, Boe-ing’s CSEL program manager.

Bates notes that the new technology could change the way combat search-and-

BY JOHN KELLERCHELMSFORD, Mass.—Mercury Computer Systems Inc. in Chelmsford, Mass., won a contract from the U.S. Air Force Re-search Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Pat-terson Air Force Base, Ohio, to provide computer hardware and services for the Continuous Look Attack Management for Predator (CLAMP) Program.

Th e goal of CLAMP is to develop ad-vanced sensor exploitation capabilities to the long-endurance Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

CLAMP is the first U.S. Air Force program to undertake Mercury’s ARIES

(Airborne Reconnaissance Image Ex-ploitation System) concept, in which air-borne multisensor platforms use stored sensor data for comparative purposes.

ARIES is a commercial-off -the-shelf (COTS) adjunct processor to help move ground-based algorithms to the platform, adjacent to the sensor and with direct ac-cess to original sensor data, so that im-age exploitation can occur in real time.

As the Predator UAV fl ies and collects data over a designated area for hours at a time, the multilook, multisensor nature of its mission can be fully exploited.

Air Force looks to Mercury to develop sensor processing for Predator UAV

Downed military pilots can use the Combat Survivor Evader Locater radio to contact rescue forces from almost anywhere in the world.

Continued on page 4Continued on page 4



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4 August 2006 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.milaero.com

IN BRIEFSmiths Detection receives contract for chemical agent monitor unitsSmiths Detection in Edgewood, Md., won a delivery order for more than 2,000 Improved Chemical Agent Monitor (ICAM) units. Th e contract from the U.S. Department of De-fense is worth $9.5 million. ICAM is a handheld post-attack device that provides a means of quickly locating the presence of nerve- and blister-agent contamination on personnel and equipment in combat and home-land defense missions. Th e soldier-operated sensor is also used to con-fi rm the absence of chemical threats in high-risk situations. Th e ICAM is based on the Chemical Agent Mon-itor (CAM), developed by Smiths Detection. More than 70,000 CAM’s have been deployed worldwide in-cluding to recent confl icts.

BAE Systems converts 20 F-4 jet fi ghters into target drones for U.S. Air ForceBAE Systems in Mojave, Calif., will provide the U.S. Air Force with 20 QF-4 full-scale aerial targets and asso-ciated technical support. Th e QF-4 is an F-4 Phantom aircraft modifi ed for remote-control operation. Th e targets provide the Air Force with full-size aircraft that permit aircrews to train in highly realistic air-combat maneuver-ing—including live weapons launch. Th e contract is the second of fi ve pos-sible options exercised under an orig-inal agreement in effect until 2013. BAE Systems will perform the mod-ifi cation work at its facility in Mojave. Th e production eff ort will be complet-ed by July 2008. BAE Systems is the ex-clusive provider of QF-4 drones to the Air Force. Employees at the Mojave facility recondition previously moth-balled F-4s, run the aircraft through fl ight tests, and deliver them to Tyn-dall Air Force Base, Fla., where they are further modified into full-scale targets. The drones are then f lown from Defense Department test ranges for use in development of new weap-ons systems and to ensure that those systems already deployed remain ca-pable of neutralizing enemy aircraft . Th e Air Force Headquarters Air Ar-mament Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting offi ce.

rescue missions are conducted, given that CSEL assists with the search portion.

A multifunctional radio, the CSEL not only supplies geopositioning infor-mation, but also ensures security via communication and message encryp-tion techniques designed to prevent sig-nals from being intercepted or decoded.

Boeing developed the CSEL joint ser-

vices program under contract with the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

Boeing’s first full-rate production contract for the CSEL came last March from the U.S. Air Force. Th at $43.6 mil-lion order called for Boeing to deliver 5,053 CSEL handheld radios to the joint services by October 2006.

If the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy elect to acquire these devices, the con-

tract could equate to the production of as many as 46,000 CSEL radios and a total contract value of roughly $250 million, according to Boeing executives.

The potential exists for the wide-spread use of CSEL in the armed forces. Boeing representatives consider this sec-ond FRP, received less than four months aft er the fi rst contract, to be a nod of ap-proval from the Air Force warfighters equipped with them.

Boeing from page 3




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BY JOHN MCHALEALAMEDA, Calif.—Th e U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke–class (DDG 51) guided-missile destroyers are employing multi-image display processors to improve the situ-ational awareness communication capa-

bility aboard ship.Th e destroyers’ new Integrated Video

Data Distribution System (IVDDS) up-grade uses QuadView multi image dis-play processors from RGB Spectrum in Alameda, Calif., to view real-time sen-sor data and video imagery in multiple locations throughout the ship.

“Th e feedback from commanding of-fi cers has been excellent,” says Michael Prokosch, IVDDS Project Lead at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Port Hueneme, Calif. “Th e system is able to integrate and display more images to per-sonnel with exceptional image quality. The QuadView–based system has met our objective, significantly improving shipboard situational awareness.”

Th e Burke-class destroyers primarily are for detecting, tracking, and destroy-ing enemy aircraft, surface ships, and submarines, and have an expanded role in striking land targets, Prokosch says.

“Th e Aegis Command and Decision System receives data from ship and ex-ternal sensors via satellite communica-tions and provides command, control and threat assessment,” he contin-ues. “Th e latest Aegis, Baseline 7.1 and 7.1R, includes the COTS (commercial-off -the-shelf) IVDDS to improve situ-ational awareness throughout the ship rather than just one or two locations on the ship. A key component in the

IVDDS upgrade is RGB Spectrum’s QuadView multi-image display pro-cessor. Using IVDDS, we can now in-tegrate multiple visuals from a variety of disparate sources, and distribute and display them in real time to mul-tiple locations throughout the ship.”

The QuadView processor is installed in the ship’s combat information center as part of the IVDDS. Th e processor receives

feeds from Aegis close-in threat sensors, FLIR (forward-looking infrared), and live video from six cameras affi xed at various locations throughout the ship.

Operators choose from a selection of switched inputs, then each processor merges up to four of the incoming sourc-es and outputs a combined image for each screen. Prokosch continues, “Th e Quad-

Views’ multi-image display capability pro-vides personnel with a powerful ability to view more information simultaneously.”

The QuadView four-window images are distributed to 14 fl at-panel displays as well as two large-screen projection units located throughout the ship, including the Pilot House, the Combat Information Center, the Offi cer’s Wardroom, and the Commanding Offi cer’s cabin, displayed at 1280-by-1024-pixel resolution.

Th e QuadView off ers limitless display confi gurations to provide display fl exibili-ty, RGB offi cials say. Images can be any size, from postage stamp to full screen, and po-

sitioned and moved anywhere on screen. Each image can be zoomed and panned to focus on a particular area of interest. Func-tions are controlled using the QuadView’s embedded GUI browser-based interface. Preprogrammed display configurations can be recalled at the push of a button.

For more information visit www.rgb.com.

Navy Burke–class destroyers enhance situational awareness with RGB system

U.S. Navy’s Burke–class destroyers are improving situational awareness with RGB Spectrum’s QuadView technology.



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staff . Meanwhile, Evans & Sutherland has retained ownership of its planetarium and laser-projector businesses.

“Simulation and training off ers a sig-nifi cant growth opportunity for our com-pany,” says Clay Jones, Rockwell Collins chairman, president, and chief executive offi cer. “Th e acquisition of these assets from Evans & Sutherland will further enhance our simulation and training ca-pabilities and provide more robust solu-tions for our customers.”

Rockwell Collins’ product line now encompasses simulation and train-ing solutions, including hardware and soft ware, for military and commercial customers who require realistic visual imagery for simulation, training, engi-neering, and other applications.

“Th e highly realistic images provided by Evans & Sutherland’s hardware and soft ware off erings, as well as the knowl-edge and expertise of these employees, will further broaden and enhance Rock-well Collins’ simulation and training of-ferings.” says Tony Syme, vice president of simulation and training solutions for Rockwell Collins.

BY COURTNEY E. HOWARDBURLINGTON, Mass.—Th e U.S. Defense Ad-vanced Research Projects Agency (DAR-PA) in Arlington, Va., awarded a contract to BAE Systems Advanced Information

Technologies in Burlington, Mass. to de-velop next-generation wireless tactical network protocols for the U.S. military.

The Control-Based Mobile Ad-hoc Network (CBMANET) contract issued by

DARPA calls for BAE Systems to research, design, develop, and evaluate a new pro-tocol stack for networks of autonomous mobile communication devices, known as mobile ad-hoc networks or MANETs.

Each node in a MANET acts as a router with which to forward traffi c and form a network independent of any fi xed infra-structure, and as an end-system; MANETs historically have been considered to be low-performance, although fl exible, systems.

DARPA’s CBMANET is intended to boost tactical network performance, in-cluding improvements in throughput and latency.

“CBMANET will allow forward de-ployed mobile units to stay networked to each other and command posts de-spite connectivity variations due to ter-rain and other factors,” notes Dr. Nils R. Sandell Jr., BAE Systems’s vice president for advanced information technologies.

BAE Systems is working with the Cal-ifornia Institute of Technology in Pasa-dena, Calif.; Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.; Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy in Cambridge, Mass.; Pennsylvania State University at University Park, Penn.; University of Illinois in Urbana, Ill.; Uni-versity of Massachusetts in Boston; and Stow Research of Flanders, N.J.

Field demonstrations of the CBM-ANET program are expected to take place at the Fort Dix/Lakehurst Naval Air Station in N.J.

BAE Systems contracted to develop next-generation wireless tactical networks

Rockwell Collins from page 1



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NEWS

needs of future chips. Th e materials, which are sandwiched between silicon chips and the metal heat sinks, fi ll gaps, and irregu-larities between the chip and metal surfac-es to enhance heat fl ow between the two.

Purdue researchers have made several new thermal interface materials with car-bon nanotubes, including a Velcro-like nanocarpet. Th e nanotube carpets also might have military and other commer-cial applications for cooling power elec-tronics that control the fl ow of electrical power on aircraft , ships, and vehicles.

Cooling is such a huge issue that the major chipmakers are hearing their cus-tomer’s cries and introducing power-effi -cient chips. Intel just started releasing chips based on its Core Microarchitecture, which claims to improve performance while re-ducing wattage and heat. AMD is address-ing the power and cooling needs with its line of Multi-Core solutions.

“Th e bottom line is the performance that we see with nanotubes is signifi cantly better than comparable state-of-the-art commercial materials,” says Timo-thy Fisher, an associate professor of me-chanical engineering who is leading the research. “Carbon nanotubes have excel-lent heat-conduction properties, and our ability to fabricate them in a controlled manner has been instrumental in realiz-ing this application.”

Funding the research is Purdue’s Cooling Technologies Research Center, supported by the National Science Foun-dation, industry, and Purdue to help cor-porations develop miniature-cooling technologies for applications from elec-tronics and computers to telecommuni-cations and advanced aircraft .

Applications in power electronics are being supported by the Air Force Re-search Laboratory in association with the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Pur-due’s Discovery Park.

Recent findings have shown that nanotube-based interfaces can con-duct several times more heat than con-ventional thermal interface materials at the same temperatures. Th e nanocarpet, called a “carbon-nanotube-array thermal interface,” can be attached to the chip and heat-sink surfaces.

“We say it’s like Velcro because it cre-ates an interwoven mesh of fi bers when both sides of the interface are coated with nanotubes,” Fisher says. “We don’t mean that it creates a strong mechanical bond, but the two pieces come togeth-er in such a way that they facilitate heat fl ow, becoming the thermal equivalent of Velcro. In some cases, using a combina-tion of nanotube material and tradition-al interface materials also shows a strong synergistic eff ect.”

Findings related to the combination of carbon nanotubes and traditional in-terface materials are detailed in a paper by mechanical-engineering doctoral stu-dent Jun Xu and Fisher that appears in the May issue of International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.

As heat f lows through convention-al thermal interface materials, the tem-perature rises about 15 degrees Celsius, whereas the nanotube-array material

causes a rise of about 5 degrees or less.It will be necessary to fi nd more effi -

cient thermal interface materials in the future because as computer chips be-come increasingly more compact, more circuitry will be patterned onto a smaller area, producing additional heat, which reduces the performance of computer chips and can ultimately destroy the del-icate circuits, Fisher says.

Th e nanotubes range in diameter from

less than one nanometer to about 100 nanometers. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, or about the distance of 10 atoms strung together, Purdue researchers say.

Th e technology is ready for commer-cialization and is being pursued by sev-eral corporate members of the cooling research center, including Nanoconduc-tion Inc., a start-up company in Sunny-vale, Calif., which is a new member of the cooling center.

Purdue from page 1



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NEWS


IN BRIEF

ViaSat wins order in MIDS Tactical Network Terminal lot 7 award ViaSat Inc. in Carlsbad, Calif., won a delivery order valued at approximately

$39.5 million for Multifunctional Infor-mation Distribution System terminals from the Space and Naval Warfare Sys-tems Command (SPAWAR) in San Di-ego. Th e order includes LVT(1) airborne and LVT(2) ground-based Low Volume Terminals under the indefi nite delivery/indefinite quantity contract awarded in January 2000. Th e MIDS-LVT pro-vides secure, high-capacity, jam-resis-

tant, digital data, and voice communi-cations capability for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and for U.S. defense partners. Delivery of the Lot 7 units is expected to begin in June of next year and continue through the fi rst quarter of ViaSat’s fi scal year 2009. Th is delivery order combines purchas-es for the United States and the first order from the governments of Por-

tugal (11 percent), and Turkey (4.5 per-cent) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, and to Germany (1 per-cent) through a Memorandum of Un-derstanding among the founding MIDS nations (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and the United States). “With these new orders from foreign military customers such as Turkey, Portugal, and Germany, we expect to see a greater proportion of FMS and direct commercial sales to for-eign customers in the future,” says Paul Baca vice president of Tactical Data Links at ViaSat.

BAE Systems to demonstrate precision-guidance-kit technology for cannon artillery The U.S. Army’s Project Manager, Combat Ammunition Systems award-ed BAE Systems in Minneapolis a contract to participate in a competi-tive technical development program for the precision guidance kit for use with Army cannon artillery ammuni-tion. Th e guidance kit is a low-cost sys-tem that will improve the accuracy of conventional 105 and 155 mm artillery projectiles. Th e BAE Systems–led team, which includes the company’s Bofors unit, Rockwell Collins, and L3 Com-munications BT Fuze Products Divi-sion, received the award aft er success-fully completing an internally funded project to demonstrate a two-direc-tional precision-guidance-kit solution referred to as the BAE Systems Course Correcting Fuze (CCF). In 2005, BAE Systems conducted a successful fi ring-to-impact, gun-fi red demonstration of the CCF system, marking the fi rst time a two-directional precision guidance kit had been successfully demonstrat-ed in a gun-fi red environment by either government or industry. Th e contract award also includes priced options for follow-on system development and demonstration and initial production phases. To date, BAE Systems has test-ed more than 100 CCF fuzes in labora-tory and gun-fi red environments cul-minating in the 2005 demonstration where BAE Systems fi red M795 rounds equipped with its CCF from both the Future Combat Systems Non-Line-Of-Sight Cannon System Demonstrator and an M109A5 at the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground. Analysis from the demonstrations confi rmed the projec-tiles equipped with the two-directional CCF solution achieved a precision er-ror of signifi cantly less than 50 meters, which was three times more accurate than the control rounds.

from page 4



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© 2006 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Sony, SXRD and the SXRD logo are trademarks of Sony. The New Way of Business is a service mark of Sony. Projected images simulated.

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NEWS


lapse of the Twin Towers, but were unable use their radios to warn the city’s fi refi ght-ers inside the buildings.

Most of us are aware of the numbers of fi rst responders who were killed: 343 New York fi refi ghters and paramedics; 23 city police offi cers; 37 New York Port Authority police offi cers. A total of 2,819 died in New York that day.

Now what if something even worse happens in the future, which involves the militaries, fi refi ghters, police, and fi rst re-sponders of several countries? Will these offi cials be able to communicate with one another? Maybe not today, but those who participated earlier this summer in the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Dem-onstration (CWID) at sites throughout the world are working toward that goal.

The CWID is an annual exercise in-volving interoperability trials of systems and technologies that U.S. and allied mil-itary commanders consider to be essential for future operations.

Th e CWID demonstrations ran over the classifi ed Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network and the DISN LES unclassifi ed network. CWID sites were at U.S. European Command headquarters in

Stuttgart, Germany; U.S. Northern Com-mand in Colorado Springs, Colo.; U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahl-gren, Va.; U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego; and at Air Force Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.

Diff erent military commands use the CWID exercise in pursuit of their own goals. Th e U.S. Northern Command, for example, uses CWID to evaluate emerging technologies for fi rst responders—particu-larly for communications interoperability—which could be used in future federal di-sasters similar to Hurricane Katrina.

Interoperability demonstrations and evaluations at Hanscom Air Force Base revolved around coalition command and control among U.S. and European mil-itary forces—particularly concerning multilevel security technologies for joint air operations centers.

“We’re here to fi nd out what works, what doesn’t and what we should invest in,” says U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Pagoni, who oversaw CWID demonstra-tions at Hanscom. In these evaluations, representatives from U.S. and European military forces were eying new technol-ogies for possible inclusion in allied bat-tle management/command, control, and

communications (BMC3) systems.One part of Hanscom’s portion of

CWID involved interoperability between U.S. and European air-tasking orders, which are long directives that involve air targets, refueling, munitions, and coop-eration among diff erent air forces.

Formerly done laboriously by hand, these air-tasking orders are now done with computers and data networks—but more work is needed. One core problem addressed during the exercise involved the Command and Control Information System of the Northern European Com-mand, which encompasses Denmark, Norway, and Northern Germany.

“We have an interoperability issue, in that we could not accept the U.S. infor-mation format,” explains Maj. Esben An-derson, commander of the 615 Combat Communications Squadron of the Dan-ish air force. “Now we have reformatted our data so we can accept U.S. formats and export them in NATO formats.”

Anderson and his colleagues were at Hanscom to put the reformatted system through its paces and to determine wheth-er the new system worked well enough with U.S. computers and soft ware.

Part of the challenge was to place a So-laris-based system onto a Windows net-

work, and to use the Extensible Markup Language (XML) to translate data from one system to the next, Anderson explains. Tests were successful, and will be delivered in the next upgrades, he says.

Another evaluation involved the Ray-theon Distributed Common Ground Sys-tem (DCGS), which provides physical and electronic distribution of intelligence, sur-veillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data. Th e system off ers continuous on-demand intelligence brokering to enable U.S. and coalition forces to alter and adapt their courses of military operations.

With previous multimachine systems this process could take hours or even days. Today the system can do the same job in minutes or even seconds.

“We’re testing a portal we created for users to access the same DCGS informa-tion over a Web browser so you can have one machine that can do multiple func-tions and scan data to see who has what assets available,” explains Charles Magras, lead system engineer for the DCGS inte-gration support contract at General Dy-namics Advanced Information Systems.

It is real-world experiments like the CWID that can help make systems inter-operability a reality, rather than just talk-ing points and view graphs.

Trends from page 1



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Testing prices have also increased due to the impending restriction of haz-ardous substances (RoHS) legislation. Th e legislation prohibits the sale of new electronic equipment containing cer-tain hazardous substances; manufac-turers are to substitute heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexava-lent chromium) and brominated fl ame retardants (polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in all electrical and electronic equipment brought to market aft er July 1, 2006.

Patterson says his team tests for tin content to ensure that there is never more than 97 percent tin in any product, because at more than 97 percent whis-kering can occur. Th e same economy of scale applies to tin testing as to radia-tion testing—“because we test large vol-umes of products and make them avail-able off -the-shelf, our customer gets a price break,” he explains

Tin whiskers are electroconductive filaments that resemble microscopic hairs and grow out of pure tin via a crys-talline metallurgical phenomenon. Th e cause of tin whiskers is not completely understood, but stresses—like thermal cycling—encourage their growth.

No one knows what causes it, and even if they did, it would still occur, so it has to be tested for because it causes parts to fail in space, he adds.

While Aitech’s approach is business related, it also helps that many parts that Aitech uses, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), are inherently rad-hard, Patterson says. Many parts claim to be space-ready but fl unk testing, he adds.

Aitech’s rad-tolerant, conduction-cooled S950 is designed for manned and robotic space vehicles in harsh space radiation environments found in

low-Earth orbit (LEO), high-Earth or-bit (HEO), and deep-space applications. Th ese include redundant mission com-puters, fl ight guidance and navigation computers, as well as command and data-handling computers. It is currently in use on the International Space Sta-tion, Patterson notes.

The board combines a high-per-formance, low-power PowerPC 750FX processor with a silicon-on-insula-tor (SOI) processor for reduced pow-er consumption—typically less than 12 watts—as well as for increased proces-sor speed and radiation tolerance. Its custom metal frame provides rigidity and shock resistance, as well as an ar-ray of stiff eners to support rugged PCI mezzanine cards (PMCs).

Th e S950 is rad-tolerant with a min-imum board-level total ionization dose (TID) of 20 kilorad (Si). Flight units with higher TID tolerance are available upon request. In addition, the board is latch-up immune with a high linear energy transfer (LET) of 37 MeV*cm2/mg and features a low single-event-upset (SEU) rate of less than one upset per 25 years in operation at International Space Sta-tion (ISS) orbit.

Th e S950 features a 33 MHz, 32-bit in-ternal PCI bus that supports single and burst transfers, and provides the inter-connection to peripheral I/O, enabling fast access between the PCI devices and the host processor. Th e board’s external 33 MHz, 32-bit cPCI bus interface is im-plemented on a rad-tolerant FPGA for local processor access to cPCI resources. Th e board can be confi gured as a single-slot system controller, supporting as much as seven additional cPCI boards, or as a standard cPCI board in any other cPCI bus slot.

For more information on Aitech visit www.rugged.com.

Aitech from page 1

“The ability to store, retrieve, and process sensor data over a long period of time will enable warfi ghters to detect changes in tactical conditions,” says Bri-an Hoerl, vice president of worldwide sales for the defense business at Mercury.

“Th is will allow them to pinpoint attacks or avoid dangerous situations, which will greatly enhance the potential for saving time and lives.”

In addition, CLAMP will combine other selected technologies in a systemat-ic approach to enable the Predator UAV to fulfi ll its Hunter-Killer role with improved reliability and reduced collateral damage.

ARIES represents the convergence of three rapidly evolving technologies: low-power, lightweight, high-performance

computers; high-capacity, compact stor-age devices; and sensor-exploitation al-gorithms. Th is convergence will enable the automation of battlefi eld information processing, which in turn will reduce analysts’ workload and accelerate sen-sor-to-shooter information fl ow. Th e de-ployment of ARIES will facilitate best-of-breed algorithms and is consistent with the key tenets of network-centric warfare in turning airborne platforms into infor-mation servers.

Mercury experts plan to upgrade two MP-510 multiprocessor systems previ-ously purchased by the AFRL, and to assist in the performance optimization of key applications to be tested by the CLAMP program. For more informa-tion contact Mercury online at www.mc.com/aries.

Predator UAV from page 3



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Rotor

Dual bearings

Dual bearings

Silver graphitecompositebrush

One-piece housingof aluminum construction

Cover

Leadwires

Leadwires

“Drum” rotor design

OPINION


OPINION

In today’s high-performance defense weapons systems, systems designers are integrating high-power laser and mi-crowave energy that have unprecedent-ed speed and accuracy. Th ese weapons systems search out targets such as ene-my synthetic-aperture-array (SAR) ra-dar systems or forward-looking-infra-red (FLIR) systems, and can jam enemy weapons such as missiles by disrupting their radar sensors or infrared seekers.

Because the microwave or laser trans-mitters used in these systems are rapidly moving oft en faster than 360 degrees in rotation, slip ring technology is among the few solutions designers can fi nd to eliminate cabling that would otherwise be twisted and tangled.

A slip ring is an electromechanical device that allows the transmission of power and electrical signals from a sta-tionary to a rotating structure. A slip ring can be used in any electromechan-ical system that requires unrestrained, intermittent, or continuous rotation while transmitting power, analog, and RF signals and data.

Still, while the primary goal of the slip ring is to transmit the electrical sig-nals, the physical dimensions, operating environment, rotating speeds, and eco-nomic constraints oft en aff ect the type of packaging that must be employed.

In many high-performance defense applications, the slip ring is oft en cus-tom engineered to meet a customer’s specifi c requirements related to electri-cal specifi cations; mechanical packag-ing; operating environment; and cost constraints.

Electrical specifi cationsSince slip rings transmit power, analog, RF signals, and data through a rotating member, the number of circuits, types of signals, and the electrical noise im-munity requirements of the system play an important role in determining the physical design constraints of the slip-ring design.

High-power circuits that power a laser or microwave transmitter, for ex-ample, require large conductive paths and broad spacing between the paths to increase dielectric strength. Analog and data circuits that sense position and control modulation also require care in

their design to minimize the eff ects of cross-talk or interference between signal paths—even though these circuits are physically narrower than power circuits

For low-speed, low-current applica-tions, a gold-on-gold wiper/ring com-bination can be employed. Th is combi-nation produces the smallest packaging confi gurations.

For relatively high-speed and high-amperage needs, composite silver graphite brushes and silver-surfaced rings often are necessary. These assemblies normal-ly require large package sizes such as those used in an en-closed power slip ring. Using either method, most slip ring circuits exhibit changes in dy-namic contact resistance of approximately 5 milliohms.

Mechanical packagingTh e packaging considerations in designing a slip ring oft en are not so straight forward as the electrical requirements. Many slip-ring designs re-quire cabling and other rotat-ing or nonrotating hardware to pass through the slip ring. These requirements often dictate the unit’s inner diameter dimensions. Sig-nal Th ru Bore–type slip rings allow the cabling to pass through the slip ring.

Other designs, such as those in wich aerodynamics or radar avoidance (stealth) are critical, require a slip ring to be extremely small in diameter, or of very low height. In other cases, such as in confi ned environments like main battle tanks or submarines, the space available for the slip ring is limited. Th is can require the slip-ring compo-nents to be provided as individual, un-housed components.

Another option is to integrate the slip-ring components with a motor, position sensor, or connectorized in an integrated package. Th is can elim-inate the packaging space and cost of a variety of devices. Increasingly, sys-tems integrators are shift ing their re-quirements to these integrated pack-ages, which enable them to outsource the complete servo system rather than source components from numerous

vendors and design and assemble the integrated assembly.

Operating environment and costTh e environment in which the slip ring must operate has an infl uence on the slip-ring design in many ways. Rota-tional speed, temperature, pressure, humidity, shock, vibration, and expo-sure to corrosive materials influence the bearing selection, exterior materi-al selection, fl ange mounts, and even

cabling choices. Lightweight alumi-num housings are oft en used to house the slip ring, although when warrant-ed, stainless steel construction may be necessary.

Th e electrical, mechanical and op-erating requirements all drive the cost of the slip ring. By drawing from a broad array of slip-ring design tech-nologies, novel electromechanical packaging concepts and employing a state-of-the art vertically integrated manufacturing operation, a slip-ring manufacturer can design and manu-facture a cost-eff ective solution opti-mized to its customer’s performance requirements.

How a slip ring worksA slip ring is a rotary coupling used to transfer electric current from a station-ary unit to a rotating unit. Th is is ac-complished by either holding the center core stationary while the brushes and housing rotate around it, or holding the brushes and housing stationary while

the center core is allowed to rotate.One example of a slip ring is the

more common “drum” rotor design (see fi gure). Th e rotor is typically the inner portion of the slip ring while the stator, the stationary portion, is the outer portion. Th e slip ring has a silver graphite composite brush on a silver-surfaced ring, which is typically used for power transmission. Th e same con-struction method is used for signal cir-cuits. For these applications, general-

ly a gold-on-gold wiper/ring combination is appropriate. Either method provides low dynamic resistance, mini-mizing circuit noise into the 5 milliohm range.

Dual bearings are used in a one-piece housing of alu-minum construction for sta-bility and accuracy of bearing run-out. A cover can provide either dust or environmental sealing.

To eliminate misalign-ment between the slip-ring bearings and the system bearings, it is never advis-able for the customer to hard mount to both the ro-

tor and stator of the slip ring. Electro- Miniatures can design-in f langes, mounting holes, or taps and slots in the rotor and/or stator to achieve suc-cessful mounting results.

Th e type, gage, and length of lead-wires should be specifi ed. Connector-ization is an available option and the leadwire exit pattern can be chosen to match the interface requirements.

Richard Schultz has worked in the slip-ring industry for more than 40 years and is currently director of engineering at Elec-tro-Miniatures Corp. in Moonachie, N.J. He holds a B.S. degree from Kean University in Union, N.J.

Ken McCue has worked in the slip-ring in-dustry for the last 17 years, as director of quality for 15 years and currently as director of programs for Electro-Miniatures Corp. He formerly was an engineer for Kearfott Guid-ance and Navigation Corp., and holds is BS in mechanical engineering from the College of New Jersey in Ewing N.J.

Design considerations for employing electronic slip rings in mission-critical military systemsBY RICHARD SCHULTZ AND KEN MCCUE



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To register or view any archived event 24/7 visit:

http://www.milaero.com/webcasts

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) requires its suppliers to use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on shipments to the military. This mandate is part of a broad plan for RFID tracking at all packaging levels and on high-value assets. The goal is to reduce stocks and improve forecasting through total asset visibility.

This webcast will answer many of the industry’s outstanding questions on RFID technology:

• RFID technologies available • Who needs to use it • What shipments require RFID technology • Nuances of the DOD policy • Success stories and lessons already learned

Featuring RFID Experts:

Steve Roemerman, Chief Executive OfficerLone Star Aerospace Inc.

Mr. Roemerman has 25 years of strategy, operations, and tech-nology experience in the defense and telecommunications industries in startups, turn-arounds, and Fortune 50 environ-ments, including as CEO of Crosspan Network Technologies, which focused on the development of wireless hardware.

John Volpi, Chief Technology OfficerLone Star Aerospace Inc.

Mr. Volpi is a physicist with more than 30 years experience in technology product development and management in defense and telecommunications. He has deep wireless technology domain expertise, having developed systems ranging from the VHF band through infrared spectrum. His experience pre-dates the first US cellular systems, and includes radio-telephones, ship-to-shore communications, and GPS.

Lone Star Aerospace provides expert consultation in concept development, product development, testing, and deployment of RFID and related technologies.

R F I D T E C H N O L O G Y R F I D T E C H N O L O G Y A N D T H E D E P A R T M E N T A N D T H E D E P A R T M E N T O F D E F E N S EO F D E F E N S EFriday, August 25, 2:00 PM (Eastern)



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ELECTRO-OPTICS WATCHL-3 Communications Cincinnati Electronics provides thermal imagers for MK46 optical sight system

Jenoptik offers new infrared camera module For express visualization or measure-ment of heat distribution patterns, Jen-optik Laser Optik Systeme GmbH in Jena, Germany, is off ering camera mod-ules for infrared spectral operation. Th e IR-TCM 320 registers two-dimension-al heat distributions in real time with a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels. Temper-atures between –40 and 2 degrees Cel-sius can be visualized as thermographs

with 90 mK resolution. Standard inter-faces such as IEEE 1394 Firewire, S-/C-Video or RS232 are available for integra-tion of the compact module into a broad diversity of OEM applications. Among the available options are: image analy-sis soft ware, remote camera control and a choice of objective lenses with diff erent focal lengths. A dedicated Soft ware De-velopment Kit (SDK) allows for fl exible integration of the IR-TCM 320 into spe-cifi c custom-application soft ware. Appli-cations of the module include industrial process control and process automation, furnace monitoring, or security installa-tions. For more information contact Jen-optik online at www. jenoptik-los.com

Boeing-led team tracks and targets simulated missile in Airborne Laser ground testTh e Boeing Co. Integrated Defense Sys-tems segment in St. Louis, with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, conducted an Airborne Laser (ABL) ground test on June 6, demon-strating the weapon’s ability to track and target a ballistic missile. During the test at Boeing facilities in Wichita, Kan., the ABL, which operates aboard a modifi ed Boeing 747-400F aircraft , located a sim-ulated boosting ballistic missile target created by a target simulator. Aft er using simulated returns from a surrogate tar-get illuminator laser to track the target, the Airborne Laser used simulated re-turns from a surrogate beacon illumina-tor laser to compensate for atmospheric turbulence that ABL’s high-energy laser would encounter in its path to a target. Th e equipment used in the test is part of the beam control/fire control sys-

NORTHAMPTON, Mass.—Officials of the Kollmorgen Corp. Electro- Optical seg-ment in Northampton, Mass., needed thermal imagers for the MK46 Optical Sight System (OSS) on the U.S. Navy’s Ticonderoga-class guided-missi le cruisers.

Th ey found their solution from the L-3 Communications Cincinnati Elec-tronics (L-3 CE) subsidiary of L-3 Com-munications Corp. in Mason, Ohio.

Kollmorgen awarded L-3 a con-tract to upgrade the existing system, which includes the L-3 CE NightCon-queror 640 thermal imager. L-3 CE has been providing OSS thermal imagers to Kollmorgen since 2002.

First installed aboard a U.S. Navy Ar-leigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in 1992, Kollmorgen’s MK46 sight system is the industry standard for electro- optical tracking and fi re-control systems.

Th e system includes a daylight high-resolution three-chip color camera, a 3-to-5-micron thermal imager, an eye-safe laser rangefi nder and stabilization accuracy to 30 microradians. In addition, the system features built-in-test capability.

Deliveries continue for L-3 CE’s Night-Conqueror IR thermal imaging sensors being installed on the Burke-class de-stroyers as a replacement for the original

midwave imager on the existing fl eet. Th e sensor being supplied under these con-tracts consists of a folded optical dual fi eld of view telescope, the infrared sen-sor, cooler, drive electronics and all nec-essary hardware/cables to interface the electronics to the weapons director.

Th e MK46 Optical Sighting System MOD 0 is installed on all Burke-class destroyers as part of the MK 34 Gun System. Th e modular design allows the system to be confi gured or upgraded to

provide for special missions and ensures the system can be maintained as current state-of-the-art, L-3 offi cials say.

In 1997, the U.S. Navy and Kollmor-gen began a series of upgrades to provide operators with more capabilities, includ-ing a new eye-safe laser rangefi nder, a color television camera and utilization of the standard UYQ-70 Console.

For more information contact L-3 Communications Cincinnati Electronics online at www.cinele.com.

L-3 Communications will provide the thermal imagers for the MK46 Optical Sight System on the U.S. Navy’s Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers.

Northrop Grumman readies laser-based anti-missilesystem for operational deploymentBY JOHN KELLERREDONDO BEACH, Calif.—Engineers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Directed En-ergy Systems segment in Redondo Beach, Calif., are readying mobile high-power laser technology for deployment in the U.S. and abroad against short-range bal-listic missiles, short- and long-range rock-ets, artillery shells, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and cruise missiles.

The Skyguard laser defense system is based on technology that Northrop Grumman experts developed for the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) test bed, the Mobile THEL prototype, and its predecessors, which Northrop Grumman developed for the U.S. Army and the Israel Ministry of Defence.

Th e Tactical High Energy Laser was designed with a high-energy, deuterium fl uoride chemical laser to protect against attack by short-range ballistic missiles This artist’s rendering shows the Skyguard laser weapon as it destroys

incoming ballistic missiles, artillery shells, and mortar rounds.Continued on page 18 Continued on page 18



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FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT

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When all you do is military computing,

you’d better be the best.Our business is rugged computing for military applications. It’s all we’ve ever done. It’s our only business.

So if our future depends only on what we do today, and what we’ve always done, we’d better make surethat we do it better than anyone else. And we think we do. We were among the very first to seize the COTSopportunity. We wrote the book on rugged. We pretty much invented long term program support, help-ing our customers manage their way through the challenges of deploying systems over multiple decades.

And as well as being leaders in COTS, leaders in rugged and leaders in customer support, we’re also lead-ers in technology: we were, after all, first to market with a family of 3U VPX products. We’re also leadersin our ability to help you deliver a more complete solution - from sensors, data acquisition and videotracking through our unique AXIS-enabled multiprocessing capabilities to advanced graphics andcommunications solutions.

Being the best. It’s about helping our customers be the best.

So why aren’t you working with Radstone?



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ELECTRO-OPTICS WATCH


and similar airborne threats.Skyguard has higher power and a

larger beam than its predecessors. Like earlier prototype systems from Northrop Grumman, Skyguard is a multimission, soldier-operated, compact and trans-portable laser weapon system designed for fi eld deployment and operations.

One Skyguard system can defend de-

ployed forces, a large military instal-lation, a large civilian population, or industrial area, Northrop Grumman of-fi cials say. One Skyguard system is capa-ble of generating a protective shield of about six miles in diameter.

“We believe that no other weapon of any kind, or any system being devel-oped today, can off er the kind of protec-tion we’ve proven Skyguard can provide,” says Alexis Livanos, president, Northrop Grumman Space Technology. “Skyguard off ers the earliest possible implementation of an operational laser weapon system for defense against a wide range of threats.”

In use at the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, N.M., since it was devel-oped between 1996 and 2000, the THEL test bed has shown that laser weapons can protect troops on the ground, com-

pany offi cials say. During testing, for example, the system

shot down 25 Katyusha rockets, which were developed in the former Soviet Union, and are in wide use in the Middle East. In 2004 the Mobile THEL system shot down sever-al mortar rounds in actual mortar-threat scenarios. Th e THEL prototype intercept-ed and destroyed single mortar rounds and salvos of mortars.

“Th e THEL test bed has demonstrat-ed unequivocally that lasers can engage and destroy rocket, artillery, and mor-tar threats in fl ight,” says Mike McVey, vice president of Northrop Grumman’s Directed Energy Systems.

“This test bed has been remarkably successful,” McVey says. “To date, it has shot down dozens of live threats, includ-ing long- and short-range rockets, mor-

tars and artillery projectiles, in very realistic attack scenarios, and under sim-ulated operational conditions such as surprise attacks and mixed threats.”

Th e THEL prototype used fi re-con-trol radar to establish trajectory informa-tion about incoming rockets, and handed off targeting information to the pointer-tracker subsystem (PTS), which included a beam director. Th e PTS tracks the tar-get optically, then begins a fi ne tracking process for THEL’s beam director, which places the high-energy laser on target.

The laser’s energy heats the target, which causes its warhead to explode. Like the THEL test bed, Skyguard is a modu-lar and fl exible system that will support fu-ture spiral developments and can accom-modate improved laser and beam-control technologies as they become available.

tem, designed and integrated by Lock-heed Martin, and the battle-manage-ment system developed by Boeing. “Th e Airborne Laser team is working tire-lessly to reach its fi rst 2006 Knowledge Point, in which the two actual illumi-nators will be installed, integrated and ground-tested in the ABL aircraft ,” says Pat Shanahan, vice president and gen-eral manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. Th e high- energy laser, which achieved lethal power and run-times in a ground laboratory in December 2005, is currently being refurbished and will be installed in the ABL aircraft in 2007; the program’s fi rst missile shoot-down

test is scheduled for 2008. Boeing is the prime contractor for ABL.

DRS Technologies receives Army contract for next-generation thermal weapon sightsTh e U.S. Army’s Communications-Elec-tronics Command (CECOM) in Fort Monmouth, N.J., acting on behalf of Pro-gram Executive Office Soldier awarded DRS Technologies, in Parsippany, N.J., a $14 million order to produce next-gener-ation lightweight Th ermal Weapon Sights (TWS II) for U.S. Army ground force ap-

plications. For this award, DRS will pro-duce Light Th ermal Weapon Sights and Th ermal Imaging Modules (TIMs), which will utilize the company’s uncooled infra-red technology. Work for this contract will be accomplished by the company’s DRS Sensors & Targeting Systems–Optron-ics Division in Palm Bay and Melbourne, Fla., and Infrared Technologies Division in Dallas, Texas, and Irvine, Calif. Using advanced microbolometer-based infrared technology, the DRS family of light, me-dium, and heavy TWS will provide U.S. Army soldiers and armament crews with greater range of threat detection and wid-er fi eld of view at a reduced cost.

Nothrop from page 16



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PRODUCT INTELLIGENCE


BY JOHN KELLERTh e latest fi eld-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for military and aerospace appli-cations are larger and more complex than they have ever been before, which is put-ting increasing pressure on vendors of FPGA programming tools that bring out all the performance that these devices were designed to off er.

No matter the kinds of advanced in-novations that FPGA tools manufactures come up with, systems designers and FPGA programmers always want more—better code effi ciency, higher levels of ab-straction, better debugging, and ever more tightly integrated tool suites.

“Th e overall trend that people want to see is better effi ciency and performance from working at higher levels,” explains Rodger Hosking, vice president of Pentek

Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J.“Th at goal is working at higher lev-

els of abstraction in terms of signal pro-cessing or control task for implementing FPGA functions. Th is is the dream and the vision that all the tool companies are promising.”

Pentek is an advanced signal-pro-cessing company that specializes in soft -ware-defi ned radio for military and other government applications. Company en-gineers are implementing complex signal processing and RF algorithms in FPGAs for a growing number of applications.

Systems designers, Hosking says, “want to, say, take a C program and convert it into highly effi cient FPGA code, and in a couple of hours be off and running.”

Th at goal, Hosking points out, has yet to be achieved, yet FPGA tool companies

are working at making that goal a reality—eventually. Until that happens, Hosking recommends several areas in which FPGA tools vendors might better serve engineers at Pentek and other FPGA implementers.

“One issue constantly bugging us is changes in the revision levels of the de-velopment tools for FPGA design, such as the Xilinx ISE tools,” Hosking says. “What happens is every time they come up with a new revision, our IP cores and design kits and libraries may no longer work, or may not work the same way. If I completed a project a year ago and got the FPGA working perfectly, I may recompile it on my new version of the tools and get errors, things that don’t work anymore, or diff erent optimization techniques, and that causes problems.”

Other FPGA implementers also have

ideas about changes they most need for programming and development tools.

“Th e three biggest challenges for FPGA designers are timing closure, coding ef-fi ciency, and verifi cation,” says Dennis Smetana, product development manag-er for the CHAMP-FX product at Curtiss Wright Controls Embedded Computing in Leesburg, Va.

“Th ere is a need to be able to design in a hierarchical fashion, not only at an RTL level, but also to be able to preserve place-ment and routing information once a block is completed,” Smetana says. “Tools are starting to come out to address this is-sue providing more advanced fl oor plan-ning capabilities, and I see an increased focus in this area. Th is is also key to the more effi cient use of reuse-IP which is re-quired for quicker time to market.”£

Manufacturers of FPGA programming tools struggle to meet the new demands of designers

FIELD-PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAY (FPGA) DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT TOOLS, AND SELECTED THIRD-PARTY FPGA DESIGN SUPPORT

Tool name Kind of tool Devices supported Host environments Key features Comments

ACTEL CORP; Mountain View, Calif.; 650-318-4200; www.actel.com

Libero IDE Integrated FPGA development package

All currently released Actel devices including the Fusion AFS600, ARM-enabled Fusion M7AFS600, and ARM-enabled M7A3P/E

Windows, Solaris, Linux Project and design fl ow management; schematic and HDL design capability; combining of schematic and VHDL or schematic and Verilog design fl ows; SmartGen “correct by design” library of confi gurable logic, memory, and new Fusion smart analog, mixed signal, and digital peripherals; VHDL/Verilog synthesis; physical implementation, fl oorplanning, physical constraints; and SmartTime environment for timing constraint management and analysis

Combines tools from EDA vendors Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics, SynaptiCAD, and Synplicity with custom tools from Actel

Designer Physical implementation software tool suite

All Actel FPGA devices Windows, Solaris, Linux Compatible with Actel LiberoIDE, Magma PALACE Physical Synthesisk, and VHDL and Verilog simulation libraries; Support for Verilog/VHDL/EDIF/VITAL/SDF/SDC; MultiView Navigator for cross-probing; timing-driven place-and-route; SmartTime Static timing constraints entry and analysis; and real-time debugging software

Enables plug and play of EDA tools from Synplicity, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, Cadence, Magma Design Automation, and many others

Silicon Sculptor II Single device programmer for the PC

All Actel packages Windows 98, 2000, XP Universal Actel socket adapters; uses the same software as the Silicon Sculptor I; security fuse can be programmed to secure the devices; allows self-test to test its own hardware; and STAPL support for ProASIC and ProASICPLUS devices available in Windows software

Volume programming services available

ALDEC INC.; Henderson, Nev.; 702-990-4400; www.aldec.com

Active-HDL Integrated environment for digital IC design

FPGA families from different vendors

Windows NT/2000/XP Design entry; high-performance simulator; debugging; co-simulation; automated testbench generation; design data management; FPGA vendor support; coverage and profi ler metrics; documentation; legacy design support

Tool employs hardware description languages and C/C++ solutions

ALTERA CORP; San Jose, Calif.; 408-544-7000; www.altera.com

Quartus II System on a programmable chip tool

Stratix II FPGAs; Stratix FPGAs; Stratix II GX FPGAs; Stratix GX FPGAs ; Cyclone II FPGAs; Cyclone FPGAs; HardCopy Structured ASICs; MAX II CPLDs; APEX II FPGAs; APEX 20K FPGAs; Mercury FPGAs; FLEX 10KE, FLEX 10K, FLEX 10KA FPGAs; ACEX 1K FPGAs; MAX 7000B, MAX 7000AE, MAX 7000S & MAX 3000A CPLDs

Windows XP Professional x64 (using 32-bit); Red Hat Linux Enterprise 4.0

TimeQuest timing analyzer; Project Manager Interface; SystemVerilog support; Enhanced I/O pin planner; Expanded board-level design support; LogicLock enhancement; and SignalTap II logic analyzer

Timing analysis tool with comprehensive native support for the industry-standard Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC)-based timing format



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ALTIUM LTD.; Frenchs Forest, Australia; 011-61-2-9975-7710; www.altium.com

Altium Designer Unifi ed electronic product development system

FPGAs from Altera, Xilinx Lattice Semiconductor, and Actel

Windows XP Mixed schematic/VHDL and Verilog design synthesis; Live connection fo soft devices such as virtual instruments and processors running inside an FPGA; Pre-synthesized FPGA-ready peripheral libraries; Pre-synthesized FPGA-ready processor cores; wrappers for Alteral Nios II, Xilinx MicroBlaze, and PowerPC 405 implemented through Virtex-II Pro

Built-in VHDL/Verilog synthesis and allows use of external synthesis engines such as XST, Altera, and Synplicity, as well as a a VHDL functional simulation engine and support for transparent interfacing to ModelSim and Active-HDL

ANNAPOLIS MICRO SYSTEMS INC.; Annapolis, Md.; 410-841-2514; www.annapmicro.com

CoreFire FPGA application builder

Xilinx Virtex II Ppro; Virtex II; Virtex E; and Virtex FPGAs

Windows NT; Windows 2000 Works from high-level data fl ow concept; GUI design antry and debug tools; drag-and-drop high- and low-level modules; intelligent toolds and modules to handle synchronization, mangae clocks, and guarantee correct control by design; support for conversion between data types; Java fi les and host code to run and debug FPGAs

Includes more than 1,000 parameterized cores

ATMEL CORP.; San Jose, Calif.; 408-441-0311; www.atmel.com

Integrated Development System (IDS)

Place-and-route tool that can work with other synthesis tool environments

Atmel AT40K/AT40KAL and AT6000-series FPGAs

Windows 98/2000; Windows NT; Sun Solaris/SunOS Unix

Design Flow Bar provides pushbutton access to all steps in the design fl ow, including opening schematic entry and synthesis tools, and automatically generating fi les simulations. The HDL Planner tool is for VHDL and Verilog design entry, while the Macro Generation creates standard components with optimized layout and performance

Combines indistry-standard software for design entry, synthesis, and simulation with Atmel proprietary software for component generation, automatic placement and routing, timing analysis, and bitstream generation

CELOXICA LTD.; Abingdon, England; 011-44-1235-863656; www.celoxica.com

Aldec ActiveHDL and DK design suite

Unifi ed environment for developing designs with VHDL, Verilog and C

Device independent NA Combines Celoxica DK (v3.1 or later) with Aldec Active-HDL (PE-DL v6.1 or later); supports VHDL, Verilog, C/C++, Handel-C; includes Active-HDL graphical design entry and RTL simulation; invokes DK from Active-HDL Design Flow Manager; fl ow chart and direct interface access to Handel-C; Active-HDL common kernel simulation environment that integrates simulation solution for C, Handel-C, VHDL, Verilog, and EDIF; generates FPGA logic output for all Celoxica DK FPGA families

Mixed HDL and C environment in which developers using C can specify the output format of their C-synthesis (VHDL, Verilog or EDIF), set the top-level unit for C-synthesis, and set the family, device, and speed grade of the target silicon

Agility Compiler Behavioral design and synthesis for SystemC

Device independent NA Pure SystemC with no proprietary constraints or annotations; automatically generates IEEE RTL VHDL and Verilog; automatically generates FPGA netlists including Stratix II and Virtex 4; synthesis support for several clock domains; synthesis support for several blocks and no size limitations

FPGA design and ASIC/SoC prototyping

IMPULSE ACCELERATED TECHNOLOGIES; Kirkland, Wash; 425-605-9543; www.impulsec.com

CoDeveloper C language development system for coarse grained programmable hardware targets

Universal tool, as well as CoDeveloper for Altera and Xilinx FPGAs

NA Advanced C-to-FPGA synthesis and optimization; support for VHDL and Verilog synthesis targets; desktop simulation using standard C environments including Visual Studio, GCC and other C development environments; CoDeveloper Version 2 Application Manager and Application Monitor; CoBuilder C-to-hardware compiler and HDL code generator; Stage Master parallel code optimizer; Graphical optimization and analysis tools (CoDeveloper Pro Tools); cycle-accurate source-level debugger (CoDeveloper Pro Tools); online documentation and examples; direct support for Xilinx- and Altera-based FPGA platforms

Tool enables users to design in Cusing standard C development tools and methods; analyze applications to create accelerated hardware/software systems; partition algorithms into software and hardware processes; simulate and verify using traditional debuggers as well as parallel and cycle-accurate tools; optimize the design using interactive and automated tools; generate hardware including synthesizable HDL and hardware/software interfaces

LATTICE SEMICONDUCTOR CORP.; Hillsboro, Ore.; 503-268-8000; www.latticesemi.com

ispLEVER 5.0 and 6.0

Design environment All Lattice digital devices Windows 2000/XP; Solaris 2.8; Red Hat Linux Enterprise Version 3

Includes tools for design entry, HDL synthesis, implementation, simulation and analysis, device programming, and in-system logic analysis

Includes ispVM for device programming and PAC-Designer for design of ispClock and ispPAC devices

ispVM System Device programming tool that for ISP devices using JEDEC and Bitstream fi les generated by Lattice Semiconductor and other design tools

All Lattice intelligent signal processing (ISP) devices

Windows, Linux, Solaris Supports non-Lattice device programming; support for IEEE 1532 programming standard; automatically Convert Existing .dld and .wch fi les; specify I/O states during programming; override device programming operations; program entire chain or selected device(s); USERCODE/UES editor; user accessible comment fi eld; board diagnostics option; selectable cable, port, chain fi le, scan, and display options

Software can generate VME fi les supporting both ispJTAG and non-Lattice JTAG fi les which are compliant to the IEEE 1149.1 standard

ORCAstra PC-based graphical user interface that enables a user to confi gure the operational mode of a FPGA or FPSC by programming control bits in the on-chip registers

All LatticeSC, LatticeSCM FPGAs, LatticeXP and Lattice FPSC devices, including the ORT82G5, ORT42G5, ORSO82G5, ORSO42G5, ORLI10G and ORT8850

Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.x, Windows 98

Graphical user interface; set/re-set control bits in FPGA/FPSC registers; read FPGA/FPSC registers; single-channel or multi-channel data-entry modes available; text status window; save & re-use confi gurations; macro feature allows user to cycle through several confi gurations automatically; optional USB, parallel, or serial connection to the device/board

The GUI can also be used to display system status information in real time. Use of the ORCAstra software does not interfere with the programming of the FPGA




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MAGMA DESIGN AUTOMATION; Santa Clara, Calif.; 408-565-7500; www.magma-da.com

Blast FPGA Automated RTL-to-FPGA physical synthesis solution

FPGA architectures from Actel, Altera, and Xilinx

Windows, Linux, Solaris Unifi ed timing model for detailed device and interconnect modeling and consistent model throughout physical synthesis; FPGA-specifi c mapping and placement technology with timing-driven optimizations, restructuring, rewiring, and automated limited buffer insertions; ASIC-strength synthesis technology wotj standard VHDL/Verilog coding style and SDC support, on-the-fl y datapath synthesis with architecture switching, and embedded static timing analysis and views

FPGA architecture-specifi c synthesis and concurrent analysis in one tool

MENTOR GRAPHICS CORP.; Wilsonville, Ore.; 503-685-7000; www.mentor.com

HDL Designer For design creation, synthesis, and verifi cation processes of ASIC and FPGA designs in a team environment

Any PLD, FPGA, Platform FPGA, Structured ASIC, ASIC Prototypes, ASICs, and SOCs from Actel, Altera, Atmel, ChipExpress, Lattice, Xilinx, plus any ASIC foundry

Unix; Solaris; Windows NT/2000/XP; Redhat and SuSE Linux

RTL reuse and code quality assessment with scoring; multi-lingual text design tools; advanced state machine design; hybrid text-based design; HDL-centric block-based design; team design & data management

Tool works with any language: VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog, C/C++, PSL, as well as with any fl ow. The tool is integrated with leading simulation, emulation and formal solutions, and is integrated with commercial synthesis and place-and-route environments

ModelSim SE Device simulation tool

Device independent Windows 98/ME/2000/XP; Linux; AIX; HP-UX; Solaris

Enhanced GUI; common debug environment; updated performance profi ler; Verilog 2001 support; SystemVerilog support; integrated coverage metrics; SystemC support

GUI makes it easy to view and access powerful capabilities; ModelSim provides instance-based coverage results for supported metric types, including statement, branch, condition, and expression coverage

Precision Synthesis RTL and physical synthesis environment

Device independent; supports major FPGA vendor-generated cores

Windows, Linux, and Solaris Integrates RTL synthesis with physical optimization fl ows; support for Verilog 2001 and VHDL; FPGA vendor-independent technology integrates with vendor place-and-route tools; Modular Design Flow enables reuse of physically implemented components; “what if” and incremental timing analysis; automated physical synthesis; placement and timing debug editor

Helps select the right FPGA technology for each project

PENTEK INC.; Upper Saddle River, N.J.; 201-818-5900; www.pentek.com

AllianceCORE Radar Pulse Compressor

Performs radar pulse compression by performing matched fi ltering using a Fast Convolution Processing (FCP) algorithm

Xilinx Virtex-II Pro and Virtex-II NA 155 MHz maximum clock with Virtex-II Pro FPGA; High-resolution block fl oating-point calculation; Wide range of block sizes and data resolutions; Capable of operating on 64 to 16384 data sample; Complex block fl oating-point output- 16, 20, or 24-bit integer plus 6-bit exponent; Matched fi lter reference may be entered in time or frequency domain; Includes Matlab Pulse Compression Utility

Using pulse compression enables designers to improve range resolution for a radar system

PROVER TECHNOLOGY AB; Stockholm, Sweden; 011-46-8-617-68-00; www.prover.com

Prover eCheck Logic equivalence checker for FPGA, ASIC, and SoC fl ows

Device independent Windows, Linux, Solaris Consumes as little as 600 megabytes per million gates; divide-and-conquer mapping engine with a combination of state point name, state point function, and design structure to map primary inputs, outputs, registers, latches, bufi f primitives, and FSMs; debugging engine; automatically pinpoints coding constructs that may lead to simulation mismatches

Mixed language support for VHDL, Verilog, EDIF 2.0, and Synopsys Liberty. Enables users to detect, diagnose, and eliminate logic errors in FPGA prototyping, military, medical, and embedded systems, and in retargeting

QUICKLOGIC CORP.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; 408-990-4000; www.quicklogic.com

QuickWorks Comprehensive design environment

QuickLogic FPGAs Windows, Sun Solaris, and Linux Tools for schematic and HDL-base design entry, HDL language editors and tutorials, logic synthesis, place and route, timing analysis, and simulation support

Includes integrated schematic and HDL-based design entry, HDL language editors and tutorials, logic synthesis support from Mentor Graphics, automatic place and route, static timing analysis, Verilog and VHDL functional, and timing simulation support from Aldec Inc. and 3rd party interfaces

SYMPHONY EDA; Beaverton, Ore.; 408-333-9199; www.symphonyeda.com

VHDL Simili VHDL development system

Device independent Windows and Linux Fast VHDL compiler and simulator assembled into an ntegrated development environment and waveform interface

Compiler/simulator can be used with or without the graphical user interface (as batch tools)

SYNAPTICAD INC.; Blacksburg, Va.; 540-953-3390; www.syncad.com

SimuTAG Real time verifi cation system for FPGAs

Xilinx Spartan-II family, Spartan-IIE, Virtex, Virtex E, Virtex-II, Virtex-II Pro FPGAs, and Xilinx 9500, 9500XL, 9500XV CPLDs

Windows NT 4.0; Solaris Supports a variety of Xilinx devices that support INTEST instruction in JTAG; supports VHDL and Verilog simulators with a PLI interface like VeriLogger Pro; enables cycle-accurate design simulation; exports vectors from simulator to the BSD cells of the device and imports the data from the BSD cells of the device back to the simulator to facilitate visual analysis; captures several seconds of real time data

Find logic and synthesis errors by comparing FPGA functional results against RTL model simulation results, and validate real time FPGA results using Verilog and VHDL test benches



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SYNOPSYS INC.; Mountain View, Calif.; 650-584-5000; www.synopsys.com

Design Compiler FPGA

FPGA synthesis tool for ASIC prototyping using high-end FPGAs

Device independent Sun Solaris, Redhat Linux Advanced core synthesis technology; design compiler compatibility; advanced compile methodologies; automatic gated clock transformation; decoupled FPGA libraries; multi-FPGA guided partitioning; hierarchy management; advanced design manipulation; SDC support; STAMP model support; support for complex clocking; FPGA Vision GUI

Compatible with Synopsys tools including Design Compiler; Formality; DesignWare; PrimeTime; LEDA; VCS; VERA; Module Compiler; HSPICE

SYNPLICITY INC.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; 408-215-6000; www.synplicity.com

Synplify Pro FPGA synthesis solution

Device independent Windows, Linux, SunOS The Synplify product takes Verilog and VHDL Hardware Description Languages as input and outputs an optimized netlist in most popular FPGA vendor formats

Synplify is a high-performance, sophisticated logic synthesis engine that uses proprietary behavior extracting synthesis technology to deliver FPGA and CPLD designs

Identify RTL Debugger

Probes and debugs an FPGA design directly in the source Register Transfer Language (RTL)

Device independent Windows, Linux, SunOS Enables the user to navigate the design graphically and mark signals directly in RTL as probes or sample triggers. After synthesis, the user views the results in the RTL source code or in waveform

Identify software is closely integrated with synthesis and routing tools for a seamless development environment

Synplify Premier Adds graph-based physical synthesis and real-time simulator-like visibility into operating FPGA devices

Device independent Windows, Linux, SunOS Graph-based physical synthesis improves timing closure by means of a single-pass physical synthesis fl ow for 90-nanometer FPGAs, in which re-existing wires, switches, and placement sites used for routing an FPGA can be represented as a detailed routing resource graph; the notion of distance then changes to a measure of delay and availability of wires

Synplify Premier fi nds functional errors in FPGA designs by providing simulator-like visibility into operating FPGA hardware with integrated debugging software that enables designers to annotate signals and conditions they want to monitor directly in their RTL code.

THE MATHWORKS; Natick, Mass.; 508-647-7000; www.mathworks.com

MATLAB High-level language and interactive environment

Device independent Linux; Linux x86-64; Mac OS X; Solaris; Windows; Windows x64

High-level language for technical computing; development environment for managing code, fi les, and data; interactive tools for iterative exploration, design, and problem solving; mathematical functions for linear algebra, statistics, Fourier analysis, fi ltering, optimization, and numerical integration; 2-D and 3-D graphics functions for visualizing data; tools for building custom graphical user interfaces; functions for integrating MATLAB based algorithms with external applications and languages, such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, COM, and Microsoft Excel

For applications such as signal and image processing, communications, control design, test and measurement, fi nancial modeling and analysis, and computational biology

Simulink Multidomain simulation and model-based design

Device independent Linux; Linux x86-64; Mac OS X; Solaris; Windows; Windows x64

Libraries of predefi ned blocks; graphical editor for assembling and managing intuitive block diagrams; management of complex designs by segmenting models into hierarchies of design components; Model Explorer to navigate, create, confi gure, and search all signals, parameters, and properties of a model; interfaces with other simulation programs and incorporates hand-written code, including MATLAB algorithms; option to run fi xed- or variable-step simulations of time-varying systems interactively or through batch simulation; functions for interactively defi ning inputs and viewing outputs to evaluate model behavior; graphical debugger to examine simulation results and diagnose unexpected behavior in a design; access to MATLAB for analyzing and visualizing data, developing graphical user interfaces, and creating model data and parameters; model analysis and diagnostics tools to ensure model consistency and identify modeling errors

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The European Union (EU) has is-sued two directives that will have a significant inf luence on the

global military and aerospace market. First, the EU Restriction of Hazard-

ous Substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment directive (Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council), which took effect July 1, prohibits the sale of new electron-ic equipment containing certain hazard-ous substances, including lead, cadmi-um, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybro-minated diphenylethers in the EU.

Second, and expected to take eff ect on January 1, is the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE; Di-rective 2002/96/EC) policy, which calls for organizations to take responsibility for recovering and recycling products containing hazardous materials at the end of their useful lives.

Th e EU is not alone in its environmen-tal legislation with regard to the manufac-ture and recycle of electronics; it is a glob-al trend. Japan, one of the world’s leading producers of electronic components and printed circuit boards, has been aggres-sive in its eff orts to remove lead from its manufacturing processes and is expected to institute lead-free legislation this year. China is following suit. In the U.S., mean-while, California legislature approved SB-20, with a compliance deadline of January 2007 that prohibits the sale of electronic products in the state that do not meet EU RoHS standards.

“The component industry is mov-ing all of its parts slowly but surely to be lead-free,” recognizes Andy MacCaig, operations director for Radstone Digi-

tal Processing in the United Kingdom. “Even for those countries where there is no lead-free legislation and no require-ment to manufacture lead free, while it’s not directly applicable to them, it is go-ing to aff ect them. Th e electronic com-ponents they need to purchase to make their products are moving to a lead-free fi nish. All the evidence at the moment certainly suggests that that’s the way the world is going, and that we will be seeing lead-free solder everywhere.”

Getting the lead outTh e biggest, although not the only, infl u-ence of the RoHS legislation for the elec-tronics industry is the requirement to re-duce signifi cantly—nearly to zero—the amount of lead in products, including component fi nishes and solder. Lead has been used in solder, which is predomi-nantly made of tin, for several decades with good reason. For starters, the addi-tion of lead makes solder soft er and more pliable, which is of particular benefi t to military and aerospace applications.

“Electronic components and the circuit board that they are soldered to expand and contract at diff erent rates as they heat and cool,” MacCaig explains. “Th e solder joint connecting them has to be able to accom-modate those items expanding and con-tracting at diff erent rates—it has to link and move without fracturing so that, over lots of thermal cycles, the joint stays intact and doesn’t break.”

A primary concern in moving away from leaded solder is compromising the integrity of the solder joint, which is of keen concern to military systems design-ers where reliability is paramount. A lead-free solder joint is likely to be far more

brittle and intolerant of extreme temper-ature changes, which are common in mil-itary and aerospace environments.

“If you take the lead out, you increase the risk of that solder joint failing due to the expansion and contraction of the parts it is connecting together,” MacCaig says. “Th at is certainly one of the chal-lenges of moving to lead-free solder—working out exactly what substances and what processes to use to make sure we can get the sort of reliability that we’re used to from a lead-based solder.”

The use of lead-free solder further calls into question the reliability of the overall printed circuit board and its components, not just the solder joints. The move to lead-free products affects the whole manufacturing process, says Doug Patterson, vice president of world-wide sales and marketing at board man-ufacturer AiTech Defense Systems Inc. in Chatsworth, Calif.

“Lead-free solders require higher pro-cessing temperatures, which stress the board during manufacture quite a bit more,” remarks Patterson. “Military cus-tomers care about and won’t accept the higher temperature, which puts great-er stresses on the boards’ components. Some of our customers are saying, ‘We will not accept anything but tin-lead.’”

Another eff ect of moving to lead-free solder and components—tin whiskers—is garnering much attention among de-fense and aerospace systems designers, and rightly so. Tin whiskers have caused documented failures to various satellites, radars, and missiles, including the Gal-axy-3 satellite, F-15 jet fi ghter radar, and Patriot missile.

More recently, offi cials of the Aero-

space Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., de-bated with NASA leaders about wheth-er NASA should launch the space shuttle Discovery STS-121. Aerospace Corp. ex-ecutives fear that tin whiskers on the shuttle’s fl ight-control-system (FCS) avi-onics boxes will fall onto circuit boards, which would create a failure of the orbit-er’s electrical components and the sub-sequent loss of crew and shuttle. NASA launched STS-121 on July 4.

Tin tacticsIn moving to lead-free electronics, compo-nent manufacturers must abandon their use of a tin-lead fi nish on the component legs, designed to ease the process of solder-ing parts onto the board. Gold, silver, zinc, and other metals can grow whiskers, but tin is perhaps the most susceptible.

“Certain lead-free finishes are very prone to tin-whisker growth,” MacCaig says. “Th e exact reasons for that are be-coming better known, but the phenom-enon of tin whiskers is still something of a mystery.”

Tin whiskers represent a crystalline metallurgical phenomenon by which tin grows tiny electroconductive fila-ments that resemble microscopic hairs. The cause of tin whiskers is not com-pletely understood, even aft er decades of study, yet experts do know that thermal or compressive stresses encourage their growth. Able to carry a current, whiskers are known to cause shorts in high-volt-age circuits and intermittent failures in low-power ones.

Electronics designers grapple with lead-free solder guidelinesThe European Union WEEE/RoHS directives cause concern in the military and aerospace market as to the availability and reliability of lead-free electronic components.

BY COURTNEY E. HOWARD

Many manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors, and systems inte-grators are refusing to use pure-tin devices due to the risk of develop-ing tin whiskers, known to cause system failures.

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“For the better part of 60 years, we’ve known in the electronics industry that tin whiskers are a natural phenomenon of pure tin, especially when it’s put under me-chanical stress,” Patterson says. “You build the lead frame, grow the device, attach the die, cover it with epoxy, and then you bend the leads and cut it; that puts mechanical stresses throughout the lead frame. Th ose mechanical stresses cause tin whiskers, or molecules of tin, to grow off the device in any diff erent direction, sometimes so thick you can’t even see through it—it’s a forest. If one grows off , it’s so small you can’t see it, except under high magnifi cation, and it can short the device.

“People have put pure-tin, wire-wrapped connectors in their desk drawer and, when they pull them out a couple months later, they are a forest of whiskers—stuff you can’t even see through,” Patterson contin-ues. “And they are strong; you could whack that thing on the table and those fi bers stay right where they are.”

Obsolescence concerns “A lot of non-European organizations, I think, have taken the view initially that this is a piece of EU legislation; they’re not based in the EU, therefore, they don’t need to worry about it,” MacCaig points out. “On the one hand, if you’re not sell-ing products into the European market, then the EU directive isn’t applicable to you. An American company manufac-turing in America, selling to American customers has no obligation to be com-pliant with the European regulations.”

MacCaig admits, however, that the is-sue at hand is far more complicated.

Military and aerospace systems de-signers have become increasingly reli-ant on commercial-off-the-shelf com-ponents, given their low cost and ready availability. Commercial component manufacturers, interested in taking ad-vantage of the global market, are dedi-cated to the production of RoHS-com-pliant, and therefore lead-free, products and production processes. Most are un-likely to run two product streams—one lead-free for the European market and one that’s still leaded for and mil-itary, aerospace, and defense applica-tions. Even if some companies continue to support a non-RoHS-compliant prod-uct line, the concern is that the compo-nents will cease to be COTS products by definition and will suffer from higher prices and reduced availability.

“As we start developing new products, we start hitting component obsolescence issues,” Patterson says. “WEEE/RoHS has caused some semiconductor vendors to obsolete entire product lines. If they’re selling a million chips a day to the telecom industry and selling 100 chips a day to the military, it doesn’t take a rocket scien-

tist to fi gure out that they’re not going to maintain two separate product lines with two separate lead frames to support both; it’s economics. Th ey’ll obsolete an entire product and offer you the replacement product, which is the same die but on a diff erent lead frame. If that lead frame is pure-tin, we can’t use it and we have to redesign the product to provide the same level of functionality—there are costs as-sociated with that, and nobody wants to feel those costs passed on.”

Kicking and screamingThe end users in military, space, and commercial aviation environments are likewise concerned, not only about the cost and availability of products but also their safety and reliability.

“Components are becoming an avail-ability issue because manufacturers are shift ing to lead-free to meet the needs of their major customers—the major semi-conductor market, including cell phones, telecommunications, and computers,” says Vance Anderson, chief of the Mi-croelectronics Design Branch of the DOD’s Defense Microelectronics Activi-ty (DMEA) in Sacramento, Calif. “Most manufacturers are not going to maintain a dual-process line for leaded and lead-free components.”

WEEE/RoHS and similar legislation are forcing changes on the U.S. Depart-ment of Defense and related industries, even though no U.S. restriction on these materials exists. Be-yond the parts avail-ability issues, mili-tary and aerospace personnel are con-cerned about the ef-fects of mixing lead-free and traditional tin-lead in systems.

“We have a few is-sues with lead-free,” Anderson says. “One that everybody likes to talk about is tin whiskers, when you have less than roughly 3 percent lead in the fi nish on the compo-nent, which cause failures due to shorts and other problems.”

The DMEA has tested lead-free as-semblies, to which most commercial manufacturing processes are moving. Its results show that they do not perform as well as traditional tin-lead systems in a military environment, and they may not survive the accompanying extreme envi-ronments and long product cycles.

“We use our systems at a much high-er temperature range, both hot and cold, than the commercial industry,” Anderson

says. “We also keep the products around for much longer. You get rid of your cell phone about every two years; we don’t get rid of our weapons systems and replace them every two years. They can last 20, 40, even 60 years in service. Th ose things set our systems apart from the commer-cial arena.”

Th e longevity of products, and the need to repair them periodically, lends to an-other area of concern—the combination, whether consciously or unknowingly, of tin-lead and lead-free products.

“Some of the materials being used as re-placements are not at all compatible with tin-lead,” Anderson says. “For example, if you get bismuth in a tin-lead solder joint, it becomes very brittle. Th ere are confi gu-ration-control issues with how you do re-pairs, what components you replace, and what solders you’re using in the repair methodology. It’s causing quite a concern,

especially if you keep in mind the military is one of the few industries that still repairs circuit cards. Most of the high-reliability programs, the space programs in NASA, for example, are absolutely demanding that we still use traditional tin-lead solder.”

Still, Anderson and others at the DMEA are running several test pro-grams to evaluate new lead-free solders in the military environment. While the manufacturers are performing tests on and qualifying solders, they do not test according to the temperature extremes and the product-life durations necessary for military use. A great deal of testing

is still required to qualify these solder replacements for the mil-aero environ-ment; yet they are learning more each day, Anderson says.

Compliance and pure-tin testingTh e EU RoHS directive does not require manufacturers to include specific ver-biage or a certain label or logo on prod-uct assemblies or packaging. The as-sumption is made, therefore, that any product entering the European market is RoHS compliant. U.S. customers, howev-er, prefer to know precisely what materi-als are incorporated in each product.

“Some component manufacturers have switched to pure-tin lead frames, and they have not marked their pack-aging as having switched,” Patterson mentions. “It’s a complicated and se-rious issue. A whole industry has popped up around testing components

on their content.” “Th e quality of the information

that we get from component sup-pliers is variable,” MacCaig admits. “Some give us more info than we could possibly want and allow us to confi rm that they really are sup-plying us product that is compliant and that we can use. We have man-ufacturers at the other extreme that give us very little data and do not tell us when they move from a lead-ed to a lead-free fi nish on products. People need to be careful to make

sure that what they’re buying is what they think they’re buying. We’re having to work very hard to do just that.” To that end, Radstone has purchased equipment for incoming product inspection to ana-lyze whether they are compliant with the ROHS regulations.

“We already know of lead-free parts in our supply system, even though our con-tracts specify that they should not be sup-plied that way,” Anderson says. “There could be problems in repair and manufac-turing because of that. You have to man-age your parts and your processes. If you do nothing, you’ll be fi ghting fi re drills and dealing with problems. You really have to know what is going into a system.”

Options and offeringsWith the EU RoHS directive in effect, the industry has a fi nite list of options. Th e fi rst option is to continue using lead-ed solder. Some companies have elected to buy all the parts they can while they are still available to complete their pro-duction requirements.

“We can take a part from a manufac-turer that is supplied to us lead-free, and refi nish it ourselves to allow us to contin-ue to solder it with a leaded solder,” Mac-Caig says, off ering up another choice, al-though it adds extra process steps, extra

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS


time, and extra cost to the product.“The third option is to move to lead-

free product, but even that isn’t as easy as it sounds,” MacCaig continues. “We can’t necessarily get all the parts lead-free for some of the products we currently have in production. We have this slight conun-drum where we cannot always get the parts lead-free to build a lead-free board, but we also cannot get all the parts leaded to build a leaded board. Still, we are able to refi nish an unleaded part to be leaded, and go the other way as well, if needed.”

Some viable options for replacing tin-lead solder exist today, and the industry in general continues to work on alloys of tin—including palladium, gold, and nickel—to keep pure-tin content down below 97 per-cent to prevent whiskers from forming.

“Unfortunately, all those packages are really expensive now,” Patterson says. “Palladium is roughly $1,000 a gram. The market usage and demand is very low. Th e whole precious-metals industry has just absolutely exploded over the past four years in terms of infl ation, making it even more diffi cult. Even so, this market will settle down, the requirements will settle down, the solution will be found, and life will go on.”

Work in progressIn the meantime, much of the industry wonders if the WEEE/RoHS legislation and others like it will have a negative ef-fect on the industry as a whole, and wheth-er the bodies implementing such policies fully understand the ramifi cations and im-plications that they have worldwide.

“Fundamentally, I don’t have a problem with this lead-free issue; in the long run, it’s probably a good idea,” notes Patter-son. “But setting an unrealistic time table for the world to convert from a technology that has been in place for 60 or 70 years and expecting the industry to react in a year’s time is patently unrealistic and totally un-reasonable.”

Doubtless, the changeover to lead-free solder and component fi nishes in the mili-tary and aerospace markets will take time. A wealth of suppliers to the electronics in-dustry, even major entities and European businesses, are struggling with the transi-tion. Some, unable to make the leap, have requested exemptions

On the user side, Anderson admits that everyone is in the process of learning about new tin-lead solder replacements. “We still have a long way to go before we catch up to the 60 or so years of experience that we

have with tin-lead solder,” acknowledg-es Anderson. “There is no single solu-tion—a solution that a satellite applica-tion takes is going to be diff erent than that of a commercial radio. Th e truth is I’ve been hoping that somebody invents the perfect lead-free replacement solder–but unfortunately, it just hasn’t been in-vented yet. Th ere are advantages and dis-advantages to all of them. Th e keys are to become educated on the issue, to have a controlled transition plan in place, and to know how it aff ects your system. Look at the safety, reliability, and mission re-quirements of your system and ensure that these changes don’t attack them. We’re going to continue to build reli-

able, supportable systems, how exactly we’re going to do that is still yet to be determined.”

“It’s a very hard time for a lot of peo-ple because we don’t know how this issue is going to settle out, and when,” Patter-son says. “Th at’s what people are search-ing for—answers.

“The bottom line is we are not go-ing to ship unreliable products out to the fi eld, out the troops—period,” Patterson insists. “No ifs. No ands. No buts, and it’s not just us. Th ere’s no cost-eff ective solu-tion out there yet today, but there will be. Hang in there. We’re all in this together, and we’re busy working on the solution together.”

More often than not, a discussion about lead-free products and processes in the electronics industry will turn to the phenomena of tin whiskers. Lead-free products suffer an increased risk of tin whiskers over tin-lead solutions. Never-theless, it is possible to produce lead-free products that have no bigger risk of developing tin whiskers than their lead-ed counterparts, says Andy MacCaig, operations director for Radstone Digi-tal Processing in Towcester, England. Radstone Digital Processing has been working on safe and effi cient lead-free options for more than 18 months.

“I think a lot of people assume that lead-free and tin whiskers are directly linked, and a lead-free product must be more susceptible to tin whiskers,” Mac-Caig says. “That’s not necessarily true, if the right steps have been taken to mitigate that risk. We work closely with our suppliers, from the start of a de-sign process all the way through to the manufacturing process, to make sure the risk of tin whiskers is as small as we can make it, and certainly no great-er than a leaded product.

“The thing that’s important to us and to our customers is that we can demonstrate that we have the required level of reliability of those products in mil-aero applications,” MacCaig contin-

ues. “It’s about validating our lead-free processes, and making sure we have the qualifi cation data available to prove that a product is reliable.”

Radstone takes umbrage with man-ufacturers who test their products at room temperature, evaluating before and after a temperature cycle. Un-der those circumstances, the test re-sults might not reveal solder-joint frac-tures that cause a product to fail only when it’s at an elevated temperature. As a result, Anderson and other Rad-stone personnel make a point of testing the product the entire time that it being temperature cycled.

The fi rst board samples that the Rad-stone team temperature-cycled with a lead-free process, roughly 18 months ago, withstood only 10 thermal cycles from –40 to +85 Centigrade before sol-der joints fractured—not nearly the lev-el of reliability required. Company rep-resentatives worked with various solder manufacturers on the exact composi-tion of the solder paste and on the sol-dering profi le.

“It’s really about optimizing the mix of materials that make up that lead-free solder alloy,” Anderson says. “We now have a process that can withstand well over 1000 thermal cycles and still be reliable.”

Radstone advances reliability of lead-free products, processes

AiTech:www.rugged.com

Best Manufacturing Practices: www.bmpcoe.org

Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA):www.dmea.osd.mil

Europa, Gateway to the European Union:www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/weee_index.htm

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/background/index.htm

Radstone Digital Processing:www.radstone.com/home/rad_digital-processing.aspx

U.K. Department of Trade and Industry:www.dti.gov.uk

University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Live Cycle Engineering (CALCE) Electronic Products and Systems Center:www.calce.umd.edu/lead-free

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This artist’s rendering demonstrates how the Raytheon AN/ASQ-235 Airborne Mine Neutraliza-tion System will function against tethered and bottom-placed mines. A shaped charge destroys or neutralizes the mine.

continued on page 30



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Th e MH-60S and MH-60R helicop-ters from the Lockheed Martin Corp. Systems Integration division in Owe-go, N.Y., are based on the Sikorsky Air-craft Corp. UH-60 helicopter airframe. Th e S model is fi tted with systems opti-mized for countermine warfare, and the R model is optimized for locating, track-ing, and attacking enemy submarines.

In addition, the LCS will be able to

launch and recover manned and un-manned surface vessels and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) in 21-knot winds and waves as high as fi ve feet.

Two ships are under contract to two separate contractor teams—the Lock-heed Martin Corp. LCS team in Balti-more, which is designing a high-speed semiplaning monohull vessel, and the General Dynamics Bath Ironworks LCS

team in Bath, Maine, which is designing a high-speed trimaran with a slender stabi-lized monohull.

Although the de-signs of the two com-panies will look strik-ingly different, they both are to meet the same set of Navy re-quirements, which in-volve autonomous sys-tems as one of the chief enablers of the LCS.

This new breed of warship may have one of the smallest crews of any surface combat-ant. Th e LCS will have a crew of between 15

and 50, with accommodation for as many as 75 ship and special-mission crew.

To put it in perspective, the LCS is roughly the size of a Navy frigate, which has a crew of about 200. Yet the LCS has a crew complement as small as that of a Coast Guard patrol vessel. To make up for its relatively small crew size, the LCS will use a high degree of system autonomy as it seeks to keep the oceans clear of hostile submarines and anti-shipping mines.

Perhaps the most impor-tant mission of the LCS is de-tecting and destroying enemy mines designed to damage or destroy military and com-mercial shipping with fl oating, moored, or bottom-placed munitions.

Airborne Laser Mine Detection SystemTh e fi rst countermine system aboard the LCS is called the AN/AES-1 Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS), which is under contract to the Northrop Grumman Corp. Airborne Ground Sur-

veillance and Battle Management Sys-tems segment in Melbourne, Fla.

Northrop Grumman is designing and building the ALMDS under terms of a $124.5 million Navy contract awarded in September 2005.

Called the fi rst new technology to be applied to mine hunting since the advent of sonar, the ALMDS uses a laser-based technology mounted to an MH-60S heli-

The AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar system from Raytheon Co. will deploy from one of the MH-60R helicopters aboard the Littoral Combat Ship.

The fi rst Littoral Combat Ship USS Freedom (LCS 1) is under construction by Lockheed Martin Corp. at Marinette Marine Co. in Marinette, Wis. The LCS will have a wide variety of manned and unmanned sys-tems for detecting and defeating hostile submarines and anti-ship mines.



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copter called light detection and ranging, or LIDAR, to detect, classify, and local-ize fl oating and near-surface moored sea mines using a blue-green laser.

By using lasers to detect mines, rather than towed sonar systems, Navy leaders expect to speed the process of fi nding and destroying mines. Th e laser-based system does not require the launch and recovery of specialized minehunting systems.

Areté Associates in Arlington, Va., is providing Northrop Grumman with the LIDAR sensor for the ALMDS system. Meanwhile, Meggitt Western Design in

Irvine, Calif., is building an environ-mental control system chiller to provide a constant supply of regulated-tempera-ture fl uid to the system.

Organic Airborne and Surface Infl uence SweepAnother component of the LCS’s coun-ter-mine warfare capability is the AN/ALQ-220 Organic Airborne and Sur-face Inf luence Sweep (OASIS) system

from EDO Defense Systems in North Amityville, N.Y. The system is towed from an MH-60S helicopter that de-ploys from the LCS.

Once other systems fi nd hostile mines, the OASIS system is designed to trigger the mines at a safe distance by emitting an electromagnetic and acoustic signa-ture. “It fuses the mine by making the mine think there is a ship nearby,” ex-plains Vince Gac, undersea warfare

product director at EDO. “It is designed to approach the minefi eld from the edg-es, then cut in, and detonate the mines outside the risk envelope of the towed system itself.”

OASIS is particularly useful in mud-dy or cluttered water where other kinds of sensors and minesweeping systems might not work eff ectively. Th is capabil-ity is of critical importance coastal wa-ters, straits, choke points, and whenever

The Battlespace Prep Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BPAUV) coun-termine reconnaissance system from Bluefi n Robotics Corp., shown above deploying from a surface ship, uses a side-scan sonar system to detect and map anti-ship mines.

The Battlespace Prep Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BPAUV) coun-termine reconnaissance system is shown here deploying for recent testing to detect anti-ship mines.

The Battlespace Prep Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BPAUV) coun-termine reconnaissance system from Bluefi n Robotics Corp., is shown above during recent tests off the California coast.



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Intersil – An industry leader in Switching Regulators and Amplifiers.©2005 Intersil Americas Inc. All rights reserved. The following are trademarks or services marks owned by Intersil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the USA and/or other countries: Intersil (and design) and i (and design).

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there is little time for minehunting op-erations.

OASIS has six major components: the towed body, the magnetic infl uence sub-system, the acoustic infl uence subsystem, the control/monitoring and power sub-system, the common console OASIS soft -ware, and the tow cable interface.

Th e towed body is hydrodynamical-ly stable in all control modes while be-ing towed in a straight course and while

making turns. The towed body mea-sures its tow depth and its height above the bottom, and uses this data to fi nd the best depth for minesweeping. The tow cable distributes power, and communi-cates with the aircraft .

“Internally we have the towed body that f lies itself in a bottom-following mode where we use a transducer to hug the bottom,” Gac says. “We take power from the helo, and send it down to dif-

ferent transformers in the system. Elec-tricity fl ows from the two electrodes, and makes a magnetic fi eld in the water.

“We generate an acoustic signature with a cavitating impeller on each side of the craft ,” Gac continues. In the future possibly may look at a superconducting type system, or toward a solenoid-type sweep with superconducting elements to generate a larger fi eld.”

Minehunting Sonar SystemAnother weapon in the LCS arsenal against enemy mines is the AN/AQS-20 Minehunting Sonar System, a towed body for single-pass detection and clas-sifi cation of volume and bottom mines from Raytheon Integrated Defense Sys-tems in Portsmouth, R.I.

The AQS-20 uses imaging sonars, signal processing, and computer algo-rithms to localize mine-like objects and alert the system operator with a visual image and a contact data list, Raytheon offi cials say.

The system, which can be towed by MH-53E and MH-60S helicopters, sur-face vessels, and the unmanned AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System, is 10.5 feet long, 15.5 inches in diame-ter, and weighs 975 pounds. It has com-mon hardware, soft ware, and interfac-es, as well as common integrated logistic support and operational confi gurations, Raytheon offi cials say.

At the heart of the AQS-20’s mine-hunting capabilities are a combination of sidescan, forward-looking, and gap-fi ller sonar sensors, and an electro-optic iden-tification (EOID) capability that yields high-defi nition images of bottom mines using streak-tube imaging LIDAR, other-wise known as STIL technology, from Raytheon partner Areté Associates Opti-cal Engineering in Tucson, Ariz., says Lou Varrichione, director of maritime sensor systems at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.

Th e system sends sonar and imaging data up its fiber-optic tow cable to the

The Raytheon AN/AQS-20 Mine-hunting Sonar System, shown above, is the primary minehunting sensor system for the MH-60S helicopter, as well as the AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System, an unmanned diesel submarine.



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operator console located either aboard the host helicopter or by wireless data links to operators aboard nearby surface vessels. Th e operator’s station has a high-speed data recorder to store mission in-formation for later analysis.

Airborne Mine Neutralization SystemOnce the LCS systems detect mines, Navy commanders need a way to de-stroy the mines or render them harmless. Th at is where the AN/ASQ-235 Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS) from Raytheon Integrated Defense Sys-tems in Portsmouth, R.I., comes in.

Deployed and towed from the MH-60S helicopter, the ASQ-235 takes data from other countermine sensors, pin-points the locations of the mines, and then destroys them with one of the four expendable munitions attached to the ASQ-235 vehicle.

In eff orts to control costs and facili-tate maintenance and upgrades, Raythe-on designers use the same vehicle form factor for the ASQ-235 Airborne Mine Neutralization System as they did with the AQS-20 Minehunting Sonar System. Th e ASQ-235 “has four tethered neutral-izers on optical fiber,” explains James Normington, senior program manager

for undersea sensor systems at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.

“Th e vehicle does a pass, detects and classifi es any mines, and deploys a neu-

tralizer vehicle, what has a shaped charge in its nose,” Normington continues. “It swims up and puts its nose against the mine and detonates itself to destroy or

neutralize the mine.”The anti-mine system consists of a

control console and a launching mecha-nism for its four unmanned underwater

Anti-submarine warfare and countermine systems involved with the Littoral Combat ShipSystem Mission Description Contractor Location

COUNTERMINE WARFARE SYSTEMS

AN/AES-1 Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS)

Mine-detection system

Uses laser radar to detect fl oating or subsurface mines

Northrop Grumman Corp. Airborne Ground Surveillance and Battle Management Systems

Melbourne, Fla.

AN/ALQ-220 Organic Airborne and Surface Infl uence Sweep (OASIS)

Mine detection and destruction

Towed body to provide rapid response sweeping capability against bottom and moored acoustic and magnetic or combination acoustic/magnetic infl uence mines.

EDO Defense Systems North Amityville, N.Y.

AN/AQS-20 Minehunting Sonar System

Mine detection system

Towed body for single-pass detection and classifi cation for volume and bottom mines

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems

Portsmouth, R.I.

AN/ASQ-235 Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS)

Location and destruction of anti-shipping mines

Deployed from the MH-60 helicopter, the AMNS main vehicle locates mines, and one of its four attached vehicles destroy the mines with shaped charges

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems

Portsmouth, R.I.

AN/AWS-2 Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS)

Destroys fl oating, near-surface, and shallow-bottom sea mines

Using coordinates from the ALMDS, the RAMICS fi res special 20 mm projectiles to destroy mines in water as deep as 300 feet

Northrop Grumman Corp. Integrated Systems Airborne Ground Surveillance and Battle Management (AGS & BM) Systems

Melbourne, Fla.

AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System (RMS)

Location and destruction of mines

Semi-autonomous, semi-submersible vehicle that locates and classifi es sea mines

Lockheed Martin Undersea Systems

Syracuse, N.Y., and Riviera Beach, Fla.

Battlespace Prep Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BPAUV)

Countermine reconnaissance

Autonomous underwater vehicle that covertly gathers bathymetry and bottom classifi cations for battlespace preparation

Bluefi n Robotics Corp. Cambridge, Mass.

table continued on page 34



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vehicles, which are tethered to the pri-mary ASQ-235 vehicle with fi ber-optic cable and equipped with video and so-nar sensors to detect and pinpoint anti-shipping mines.

Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance SystemThe ASQ-235 system, however, is not

the only way the LCS can destroy anti-shipping mines. Another system on the LCS’s MH-60S helicopter is the AN/AWS-2 Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS) from the Northrop Grumman Corp. Integrated Systems Airborne Ground Surveillance and Battle Management Systems segment in Melbourne, Fla.

Th e AWS-2 system takes coordinates from the Northrop Grumman AN/AES-1 Airborne Laser Mine Detection System and fi res special 20 mm projec-tiles to destroy mines quickly in water as deep as 300 feet.

The mine coordinates pass to the AWS-2 controller, which automatically di-rects and holds a stabilized rapid-fi re gun

on the target. Th e stabilized gun usually fi res a burst of between 20 and 50 projec-tiles, which have a shape and speed to pro-duce a cavitation envelope in which the projectile rides at very low drag.

The ASQ-235 projectile strikes the mine at a velocity suffi cient to penetrate the mine and release a reactive materi-al into the explosive to detonate and de-stroy it.

Battlespace Prep Autonomous Underwater VehicleTh e helicopter is not the only platform from which the LCS can deploy weapons to fi nd and destroy hostile mines. One of the most important countermine sys-tems aboard the ship is the Battlespace Prep Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BPAUV) countermine reconnaissance system from Bluefi n Robotics Corp. in Cambridge, Mass.

Th is autonomous underwater vehicle, which the LCS lowers into the water by crane, covertly gathers bathymetry to map the ocean bottom near shore to de-tect physical changes that might indi-cate the presence of hostile anti-shipping mines. Th e BPUAV can operate not only from the LCS, but also from small vessels the size of launches or fi shing boats.

Anti-submarine warfare and countermine systems involved with the Littoral Combat ShipSystem Mission Description Contractor Location

OTHER SYSTEMS

Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) High-speed surface combatant

Maneuverable, shallow-draft warship designed for operating in shallow coastal waters and harbors

Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics

Baltimore, Md. and Bath, Me.

Theater UnderSea Warfare (TUSW) program

Maritime situational awareness system

Command and control system for theater-level anti-submarine warfare

Lockheed Martin Orincon Defense

San Diego

Spartan Unmanned Surface Vehicle

Autonomous rigid-hull infl atable boat (RHIB) sensor platform

Long-duration surveillance, anti-submarine, and countermine warfare

General Dynamics Robotic Systems

Westminster, Md.

ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE SYSTEMS

Advanced Deployable System (ADS) LCS communications

Rapidly deployable submarine surveillance system

Communications to link the ADS system to the Littoral Combat Ship. ADS is a deployable underwater sensor array to detect enemy submarines and other threats.

Harris Corp. Government Communications Systems Division

Melbourne, Fla.

AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS)

Submarine detection and classifi cation

Advanced helicopter-based dipping sonar Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems

Portsmouth, R.I.

Sea Talon (future system) Detection and location of hostile submarines

Uses Remote Minehunting System vehicle fi tted with anti-submarine-warfare equipment

Lockheed Martin Undersea Systems

Syracuse, N.Y., and Riviera Beach, Fla.

continued



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“Th e primary mission is to do surveys and collect side-scan sonar data of what is on the bottom,” explains Christopher Wallsmith, chief knowledge offi cer at Blue-fi n Robotics. Th e fully autonomous robot submarine can operate completely on its own or with the help of an operator when the vehicle is on the surface, using the Irid-ium satellite communications system.

“It comes to the surface to get a Global Positioning System fix to improve its navigational effi ciency, and to report to the operator,” Wallsmith says. It has a va-riety of dead-reckoning systems, an in-ertial measurement unit, and a Doppler velocity sonar sensor log to measure its speed over the bottom. It also collects en-vironmental information.

Th e BPAUV has a side-scan sonar sys-tem that projects sound out to the sides of the vehicle, Wallsmith explains. “It de-tects anything up to 150 meters along ei-ther side of the vehicle. When the oper-ator comes back and looks at that data, it looks like visual imagery and he can scroll through it on his screen. Th ere are patterns of bright spots and shadows that the operators are trained to look for.”

Th e current version of the LCS does not process the BPAUV data while it is underway, Wallsmith says. “It will just gather all the data there and bring it back to the mother ship and the operator goes through the data and manually picks ob-jects out, or he can use automated detec-tion soft ware.”

The BPAUV is designed for deploy-ments as long as 15 hours on power from lithium polymer batteries, which are envi-ronmentally enclosed and rechargeable.

Although the BPAUV is designed to survey the ocean environs, the ve-hicle could be adapted for anti-subma-rine warfare-related missions, Wallsmith says. For example, the vehicle could tow an acoustic sonar array behind it, or set-tle on the bottom of the ocean in low-power mode and wait for a sound to trigger its sensor systems. All ASW ap-plications for the BPAUV are in proto-type development, he says.

The BPAUV weighs 800 pounds, is 122 inches long, 21 inches wide, uses lithium polymer batteries and has an op-erational speed of three knots.

Remote Minehunting SystemOne of the most innovative minehunt-ing systems in the LCS arsenal is the AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System (RMS)—a 23-foot-long semiautonomous, semisubmersible vehicle that locates and classifies sea mines. The system’s manu-facturer is the Lockheed Martin Undersea Systems division in Riviera Beach, Fla.

Th e AN/WLD-1, which can function under control of a human operator or completely on its own, essentially is a small

diesel-powered submarine with a snorkel and antenna mast that always sticks out of the water. “It is a small snorkeling diesel submarine,” says John Brandes, the sys-tem’s chief engineer at Lockheed Martin. “With the mast up it has over-the-horizon and line-of-sight radio communications, and continuous Global Positioning Sys-tem positioning. It doesn’t break the con-nection to the surface.”

Th e system’s mission is to detect and

localize targets in the water so other sys-tems can come back and destroy them later or so Navy commanders can switch alter their missions to avoid minefi elds.

Th e AN/WLD-1 system can operate for the better part of a day, and is sched-uled for deployment in summer 2007 aboard Arleigh Burke–class guided mis-sile destroyers hull numbers 91 through 96, says Tish Rourke, the system’s pro-gram manager at Lockheed Martin.

The system has an onboard camera, which helps the vehicle navigate and avoid obstacles, according to Navy require-ments. Eventually Lockheed Martin engi-neers plan to improve the system’s ability to avoid obstacles on its own with addi-tional sensors and sensor processing.

Its primary sensor is the Raytheon AN/AQS-20 Minehunting Sonar System (see above), which the AN/WLD-1 tows be-hind it at variable depths to locate mines.



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“We have worked with Raytheon to do some slight modifi cations to integrate the AQS-20 within the system,” Brandes says. “We are using that sensor package, the variable-depth sonar, or an electro-optical identifi cation device (EOID) to perform minehunting operations.”

Stability in rough seas is a prime re-quirement of the AN/WLD-1 to keep the towed AQS-20 operating at peak effec-tiveness, Brandes says. “To operate near the surface of the ocean and maintain a stable platform through various sea states is a challenge,” he explains. “Th e control system, feedback, and specially designed fi ns give the vehicle a great deal of control, so that it is as stable as a 200-foot ship.”

Although the AN/WLD-1 and its towed AQS-20 is designed for sea surveil-lance and countermine operations, Navy and Lockheed Martin experts envision future versions designed for anti-subma-rine warfare. Th e Sea Talon research pro-gram is a step toward that goal.

“Th e concept is you take out the AQS-20 and put on sensors more conducive to finding submarines,” Brandes says. More importantly, the Sea Talon pro-gram seeks to demonstrate autonomous vehicles working as a team able to detect and locate hostile submarines, which Brandes calls “a multistatic, or bistatic approach to anti-submarine warfare.”

This concept seeks to place sonar emitters and receivers on separate ve-hicles. “Look at how surface ships hunt for submarines with a ping and return,” Brandes explains. “Now we’ve found that if you can put a broadband large ping

into the water, that energy will bounce off the submarine. You can have passive arrays that pick up that energy. If they know the size, time, and location of the original ping, they can work to fi gure out what the contacts are and can work as a team to geolocate the contact.”

More research into multivehicle au-tonomy will be necessary to bring this concept to fruition, Brandes says. “Build-ing a multivehicle, autonomous-vehicle-control technology path going forward is a key enabler for this system, so that ve-hicles can autonomously work together or one operator can control more than one vehicle.”

Spartan Unmanned Surface VehicleIn addition to submersible unmanned ve-hicles, the LCS will be able to deploy an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) called Spartan, an autonomous rigid-hull in-fl atable-boat (RHIB) sensor platform for long-duration surveillance, anti-subma-rine, and countermine warfare. Build-ing the Spartan platform are engineers at General Dynamics Robotic Systems in Westminster, Md.

Spartan will utilize towed sonar ar-rays, dipping sonar sensors, and acoustic sources as payloads to carry out its anti-submarine warfare mission.

“The USV command-and-control computing hardware and sensors le-verage our autonomous mobility and tactical behavior technologies and the fi eld-proven systems,” says Scott Myers, president of General Dynamics Robotic Systems. “Sensor-driven automated mar-

itime situation awareness is the critical technology that will enable autonomous SUVs for Navy missions.

Teaming with General Dynamics on the Spartan unmanned RHIB project are Navatek Ltd. in Honolulu; Micro-Analysis and Design Inc. in Boulder, Colo.; Signal Systems Corp. in Severna Park, Md.; In-ternational Logistics Systems Inc. in Glen Rock, Pa.; and Chesapeake Sciences Corp. in Millersville, Md.

Advanced Deployable SystemTh e LCS will be able to lay down an anti-submarine underwater sonar array called the Advanced Deployable System (ADS), which uses distributed passive acous-tic bottom-mounted arrays wirelessly linked to an analysis and reporting sys-tem to provide continuous acoustic cov-erage over large areas of the ocean.

The ADS is designed specifically to detect and track modern diesel electric and nuclear submarines, as well as track surface ships and detect sea mine laying. Building the ADS is the Lockheed Mar-tin Corp. Maritime Systems and Sensors division in Manassas, Va.

Th e ADS consists of four major subsys-tems: analysis and reporting system, sen-sor, tactical interface, and installation sup-port. Th is variant of the ADS will deploy from the LCS deck. Th e system will have a series of passive, bottom-fi xed, battery-powered hydrophones connected to an an-chored buoy and linked to a processing sta-tion aboard the LCS.

Linking ADS data to the LCS is a ship- and buoy-borne radio and data-process-

ing system from the Harris Corp. Gov-ernment Communications Division in Melbourne, Fla. Harris Partner Spectrum Signal Processing Inc. in Burnaby, British Columbia, is providing signal processing products and services for use in both ship borne and buoy components of the ADS.

The ship-borne radio platform will use Spectrum’s HCDR-1000 High Chan-nel Density Receiver VME-based plat-form, which will link to several commu-nications buoys and pass data back to a central data-processing station.

Airborne Low Frequency Sonar Rounding out the LCS array of anti-submarine warfare equipment is the AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) helicopter-based dipping sonar system from Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Portsmouth, R.I. Th e AQS-22 dipping sonar will deploy from the MH-60R helicopter aboard the LCS.

Th e AQS-22 is designed to detect and classify hostile submarines at greater rang-es than currently deployed dipping sonar systems, and can reach depths near 2,500 feet while deployed from the helicopter on a hardened coaxial cable tether.

Raytheon teams on the AQS-22 with Th ales Underwater Systems in Brest and Sophia, France. Th ales manufactures the system’s hydrophone stave arms, as well as the active transducer system.

The sonar system has seven weapon- replaceable assemblies: the acoustic proces-sor equipment, sonar transmitter/receiver, reeling machine interface unit, reeling ma-chine control unit, reeling machine, reel and cable, and the transducer assembly.

Th e hydrophone staves use beam form-ing and signal processing to detect the pres-ence of submarines and to determine the submarine’s location, range, and bearing.

Key components of the AQS-22’s signal-processing system are f ield programmable gate arrays, as well as single-board processors from Cur-tiss-Wright Embedded Computing in Ottawa, says Lawrence Epstein, direc-tor of engineering at Raytheon Inte-grated Defense Systems.

This artist’s composite image shows the future Littoral Combat Ship leav-ing San Francisco Bay on its way to a deployment. The fi rst ship of the class will take to the seas in 2008.



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PRODUCT APPLICATIONS

COMPUTERSMedav selects Themis Computer’s Slice server for submarine software-defi ned radio communications systemMedav GmbH in Uttenreuth, Germany, ended its search for a server on which to run its signal- and data-processing soft-ware with Slice technology from Themis Computer in Fremont, Calif.

Medav is incorporating Themis Slice servers into a submarine communications intelligence system. The Slice subrack is integrated into 19-inch bays alongside Me-dav equipment, including tuners and soft-ware, in the application. The new com-munication system takes advantage of the Themis Slice switched computing ar-chitecture, including liquid-cooled servers and solid-state storage units, designed for high-density and high-performance, mis-sion-critical computing.

Themis Slice, available in air- and liq-uid-cooled versions, boasts a scalable, open, and modular design to speed and simplify technology upgrades and extend the system’s usable life. Its processor-in-dependent architecture ensures seamless support of SPARC and x86 architectures; Solaris, Windows, and Linux operating sys-tems; and third-party network servers, stor-age systems, and switches.

“By disaggregating commercial com-puting resources and housing the units in blind-mating (pluggable) rack slice modules, the Themis Slice architecture achieves high compute densities with ther-mal and kinetic management, without re-

course to external shock and vibration iso-lation,” says William E. Kehret, president of Themis Computer. For more information, visit www.themis.com.

DATA STORAGELockheed Martin awards data recording systems contract to VMETRODesigners at the Lockheed Martin Corp. Missiles and Space segment in Moore-stown, N.J., needed data recording sys-tems to support their work with the Aegis ballistic missile defense (Aegis BMD) weapon system.

They found their solution from the Vor-tex VME Open Data Recording platform from VMETRO Inc. in Houston.

VMETRO is supplying Lockheed Mar-tin with data recorders based on VORTEX VME technology, which includes play-back of the recorded data over 10-giga-bit Ethernet. Lockheed Martin will use the VMETRO data recorders in instrumenta-tion and test equipment for the Aegis BMD signal processor (BSP).

The Aegis BSP is in development and will be installed in Aegis BMD ships be-ginning in 2010. It provides an advanced discrimination capability to defeat more- complex ballistic missile threats. The Aegis BSP has performed well in 10 at-sea tests over the last year.

VMETRO’s Applications Group will de-velop application-specifi c software for the record and playback requirements. This initial contract is valued at approximately $600,000 with additional systems expected

over the course of the multiyear program. “The systems we are developing for the

U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency con-tinue to benefi t from our move to open ar-chitecture, which opens the door for inno-vative technologies from small businesses like VMETRO,” says Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s business in Moorestown, N.J.

The Aegis Weapon System is a front-line naval surface defense system and is the foundation for Aegis BMD, the prima-ry component of the sea-based element of the U.S. ballistic missile defense System.

The Aegis BMD weapon system inte-grates the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 vertical launching system, the SM-3 missile and the weapon system’s command and con-trol system. When integrated with the U.S. ballistic missile defense System, the Aegis BMD Weapon System receives cues from and provides cueing information to other BMDS elements.

The Aegis Weapon System is on 80 ships around the globe with more than 25 additional ships planned or under contract. In addition to the U.S., Aegis is the mari-time weapon system of choice for Japan, South Korea, Norway, Spain and Austra-lia. For more information contact VMETRO online at www.vmetro.com.

MICRODISPLAYSIcuiti chooses eMagin OLEDs for Tac-Eye production Icuiti in Rochester, N.Y., sought out organ-ic light-emitting diode (OLED) microdisplay technology for the production of its Tac-Eye display system for defense applications. Company experts found the necessary technology at eMagin Corporation of Bellev-ue, Wash., which they chose to provide the Icuiti with thousands of microdisplays.

Tac-Eye, designed for the U.S. military with partial funding from the Air Force Re-search Lab Human Effectiveness Director-ate in Mesa, Ariz., and the U.S. Special Op-erations Command (USSOCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., was developed over three years.

The Tac-Eye system, able to mount on a helmet or goggles, combines ultra-low- power electronics with eMagin’s OLED mi-crodisplays and a lithium battery capable of providing as much as six hours of opera-tion. The eMagin high-contrast SVGA OLED display features 800-by-600-pixel resolution, brightness controls, Icuiti’s Quantum Op-tics, and the ability to display images from a wearable computer, laptop, thermal imager, or vehicle-mounted computer system.

“Designing and building the Tac-Eye system led us to evaluate every compo-nent and material to ensure optimal per-formance under extreme conditions,” says

Stephen Glaser, vice president of sales for Icuiti’s Tactical Display Group. “eMa-gin’s OLED microdisplays meet our sys-tem needs for power effi ciency and per-formance, and they deliver high resolution for critical communications.”

The microdisplays’ high-resolution, brightness, speed, and power effi ciency ensure their suitability for a broad range of defense and security applications. The devices emit light in all directions, sup-porting a range of pupil movement great-er than traditional LCDs, and are capable of working without failing or fl ickering for extended periods in harsh and high-vibra-tion environments. For more information, visit www.emagin.com.

ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIESNorthrop Grumman contracts LaBarge to produce electronic assemblies for radar jammer Offi cials of the Northrop Grumman Corp. Defensive Systems Division in Rolling Meadows, Ill., selected LaBarge Inc. in St. Louis to produce circuit-card assemblies for one of Northrop Grumman’s latest proj-ects: designing the AN/ALQ-135 internally mounted radar countermeasures system for the F-15K fi ghter aircraft.

The AN/ALQ-135 radar jammer system automatically can detect and jam enemy radar signals, including those employed by short-range surface-to-air missiles, antiaircraft artillery, and airborne threats, as examples.

The new system will combine with a ra-dar, warning receiver, and chaff/fl are dis-penser in the aircraft’s tactical electron-ic warfare system to detect, identify, and counter enemy threats.

Production on this contract, which is valued at $1.7 million, is expected to be-gin early this summer at LaBarge’s Tulsa, Okla., facility. For more information, visit www.labarge.com.

VIDEO CAPTUREGeneral Atomics Aeronautical Systems issues UAV video processing contract to Mediaware General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), a manufacturer of unmanned air-craft and surveillance and radar imaging systems based in Washington, has elected to arm the ground control station (GCS) of its Predator UAV with video exploitation ca-pabilities.

To do so, GA-ASI entered into an agree-ment with Mediaware, maker of enhanced digital video capture and exploitation sys-tems for the defense and broadcast sec-tors, located in Canberra, Australia.

GA-ASI has subcontracted Mediaware to help engineer, develop, and integrate

PORTABLE ILLUMINATIONU.S. Air Force chooses Cyberlux Corp. security lighting solution for fi eld use The U.S. Air Force has placed a fi eld use system order with Cyberlux Corp oration, maker of LED lighting solutions based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., for its WatchDog portable covert illumination system.

The Air Mobility Battlelab submitted the fi eld order, valued at $15,112 on the GSA contract, for the WatchDog sys-tem, intended for fi eld deployment and use within various USAF commands. In fact, the solid-state LED security-lighting system was developed by Cyberlux in cooperation with the Air Mobility Battle-lab for the USAF.

WatchDog provides security lighting, using a choice of visible light or covert infrared light compatible with night- vision goggles (NVGs). The solution creates a 300-by-300-foot “lightless” zone around

military assets, such as an airplane, on the ground and illuminates the surround-ing boundary.

The portable lighting system weighs less than 50 pounds, including batteries, and can be deployed quickly.

For more information, visit www. cyberlux.com.



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PRODUCT APPLICATIONS


video and data dissemination enhance-ments, including improved video and metadata capture and exploitation.

The Predator will take advantage of Me-diaware’s software, which combines aircraft positional information and sensor video into a single Internet-compliant MPEG-2 digital video stream able to be exported from the GCS in real time. For more information, visit www.mediaware.com.

SENSORSWoodward selects Unison’s sensors for turbine engine fuel-metering unitWoodward in Rockford, Ill., is in the process of upgrading the GE T700 engine series with new fuel controls and a Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system.

The company has contracted Unison Industries of Jacksonville, Fla., to provide

three different speed and temperature sensors for the U.S. Army T700-GE-701D turbine engine fuel-metering unit (FMU).

The FMU takes advantage of Unison sensors designed to measure fuel tem-perature in the fuel delivery system, while also withstanding fuel pressure at elevat-ed temperatures.

Also integrated into the FMU is a dual-channel speed sensor that determines

and communicates the rotational speed of the engine core. Moreover, another Unison sensor continuously measures inlet air temperature.

“Unison’s sensors provide us with the ability to monitor the fuel control sys-tem and engine performance on some of the military’s key aircraft,” says John Foti, T700-GE-701D FMU development program manager at Woodward. “The information they deliver will help us re-duce the cost of maintaining these en-gines and ensure their long-term reliabil-ity and safety in combat.”

Unison’s sensor technology will support the high-altitude, high-performance military aircraft powered by the T700-GE-701D en-gine. The GE T700 engine series current-ly powers 21 types of rotary and fi xed-wing aircraft, including the Apache, Black Hawk, and Marine Super Cobra helicopters.

Unison will manufacture sensors for Woodward at its Jacksonville, Fla., and Norwich, N.Y., facilities.

For more information, visit www.uni-sonindustries.com.

SOFTWARE MIDDLEWAREForce Technology selects RTI middleware for world’s fi rst four-ship tug simulator system Force Technology in Brondby, Denmark, required a communications middleware solution for its newest multiship marine-tug simulator system.

The Force Technology design team, having evaluated several DDS imple-mentations, opted to employ the RTI data distribution service (DDS), formerly NDDS, from Real-Time Innovations (RTI) of Santa Clara, Calif., in its latest full-mis-sion trainer application.

Force Technology’s newest offering is the fi rst system to provide a compre-hensive environment for training tugboat captains in maneuvering large vessels using multiple tugs into restricted spac-es. The RTI DDS will be used to intercon-nect all dynamic elements in the simula-tor seamlessly and cohesively.

“One of the key enabling technologies now emerging in the design of distribut-ed simulator systems is real-time mid-dleware,” says Peter Justesen, head of simulation and information technologies at Force Technology. “The publish-sub-scribe paradigm of DDS enables sys-tems to share data without having to cre-ate unique interfaces for each system. It frees our developers from needing to know the internal operation of each sub-system in order to retrieve its data.”

The system provides a COTS-based development environment that greatly sim-plifi es system maintenance and the intro-duction of upgraded hardware in the oper-ational systems. For more information, visit www.rti.com.



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NEW PRODUCTS

To submit new products for consideration, contact John Keller by e-mail at [email protected], or by post at 98 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, N.H. 03062. Please include a high-resolution color photo.


» RF AND MICROWAVERadiation-hardened high-speed PWM controllerAerofl ex Plainview in Plainview, N.Y., is offering a radiation-hardened pulse width modulation (PWM) controller. The PWM5032 high-speed, low-power controller, developed in partnership with Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab and the Technology Applications Group for the Mars Technology program, is for at the military and commercial satellites. The PWMs were designed using radiation-hardness techniques to ensure the product can withstand more than one megarad of total-dose radiation, provides features to implement DC-DC fi xed frequency current, or voltage mode control schemes with a minimal external parts count. Internally implemented low-power dissipation circuits include under-voltage lockout, a precision voltage reference for accuracy at the error amp input, sleep and enable control pins, a “power good” indicator, logic to ensure latched operation, selectable duty cycle control, and a dual totem pole output stage designed to source of sink high peak current. Its feature set and drive capability can be applied to PWM implemented motor drive control designs. The PWM5032 is available in a 24-pin hermetic ceramic Gull lead package, MIL-PRF-38534 screening up to Class K. A Standard Microcircuit Drawing (SMD) number will be available at the end of this year. Prototypes are available now with production units in fi rst quarter of 2007. The PWM5032-S, Class K, screened product is $550 in lots of 100. Contact the company for die availability and pricing. For more information contact Aerofl ex Plainview online at www.aerofl ex.com/RadHard.

» COMPONENTSExpanded line of illuminated knob fi gure dials Elma Electric Inc. in Fremont, Calif., is offering an expanded line of illuminated knob fi gure dials for viewing indicator characters, even in darkness. The knob fi gure dials are now available in a wide selection of size and styles. This product range is to illuminate the fi gure dial under a knob. Illumination comes from SMD LEDs on a fl exible PCB

strip inside a fi gure dial made of proprietary lightguide material. The illumination of the lightguide fi gure dial makes viewing of the indicating characters easier in all ambient

light conditions, from a dark room to sunlight. These fi gure dials are available with illuminated indicator lines, dots, and in customized versions. Standard LED colors are super-red, yellow, orange, green, blue and white. Mixtures of colors are available as a special order, as are colored lightguide fi gure dials. The lighting sets (lightguide fi gure dial and fl exible LED strip) are designed for use with standard Elma knobs in the 20 to 30 mm sizes in several styles. Standard lightguide fi gure dial marking is available off the shelf, and customer-specifi c marking is available. All marking is done on the underside of the dial so there are no problems with character deterioration over time. Additionally, the lighting sets can be used in conjunction with other manufacturer’s knobs. For more information contact Elma online at www.elma.com.

» AVIONICSCondor Engineering announces updated AFDX test and analysis tool Condor Engineering, a GE Fanuc company in Santa Barbara, Calif., is updating its Windows-based, Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX)/ARINC 664 bus analyzer tool. Condor’s BusTools/AFDX brings improved levels of power and ease of use to monitoring, test, analysis, and simulation of AFDX network nodes and switches. BusTools/AFDX can run from any standard network interface card (NIC) or with Condor’s AFDX NIC, the only interface on the market today that can support full AFDX bandwidth. The tool’s auto-discovery window automatically organizes

traffi c according to end system, virtual links, and ports; enables intuitive “visual fi ltering” by simply clicking on selected objects; and right-clicking on selections brings up a context menu for functions such as monitoring and logging. The tool’s confi guration windows provide drag-and-drop facility for building data sets and AFDX message structures; drag-and-drop facility for building fi lter equations and triggers; and intuitive panel for building fi lter elements. Monitoring provides AFDX port, virtual link (VL), and raw frame views; fl exible and complex triggering operation; simplifi ed multiwindow displays; and frame statistics. For more information contact Condor Engineering online at www.condoreng.com.

» SOFTWARE DESIGN TOOLSAda integrated development environmentAdaCore has introduced a new version of its GNAT Programming Studio (GPS) software development environment for the Ada programming language. The new version delivers improved usability and more powerful source navigation. It is available on the latest 64 bit GNU/Linux-based platforms, including those from SGI, HP and Intel. Improvements include a more user-friendly location view, enhanced tool tips, code completion, and new project editing capabilities. Human-interface improvements include better layout of graphical information and the ability to export using the Scalable Vector Graphics format. GPS offers features such as multi-language support (including Ada, C, and C++) and is available on a wide range of host environments for native and cross-development, including UNIX, Windows, and GNU/Linux. A unifi ed visual interface, identical across all platforms, serves as a control panel to access tools from AdaCore’s GNAT Pro Ada development environment as well as from third parties, easing development and maintenance. As a result, GPS is particularly suited for large, complex systems requiring tool-chain integration, ease of use, user customization, and code navigation/analysis. For more information contact AdaCore online at www.adacore.com

» CONNECTORSNew connectors available in a panel-mount format The new 25-mil-pitch connectors from Omnetics connector Corp. in Minneapolis are available in a new panel-mount format for use on front panels of plug-in instruments. As circuit size decreases and circuit density increases, plug-ins are demanding higher lead counts to handle all the signals being routed into the instruments. Circuit current

and voltages are lower, allowing smaller-wire-gauge and fi ne-pitch connectors to handle the job. The Panel-Mount Nano line of connectors pass tests specifi ed for Micro-Ds as well as the new Mil 32139 specifi cations for Nano Connectors. Pin-count standard ranges from nine positions through to 65 positions. Wired plugs with jackscrews complete interconnections. For more information contact Omnetics online at www.omentics.com.

» BOARD PRODUCTSHigh-Speed A-D I/O card with four high-performance wideband A-Ds BittWare Inc. in Concord, N.H., is offering the Tetra-PMC+ Analog-to-Digital (A-D) I/O card. The Tetra-PMC+ (TRPM) board features four high-performance wideband A-Ds running as fast as 105 MHz, and an Altera Cyclone II fi eld programmable gate array (FPGA) providing A-D control, data distribution, and front-end processing capabilities. BittWare’s TRPM board is a high-speed analog input board that provides data capture for four 14-bit A-D channels running at up to 105 MHz, streaming this data directly to an Altera Cyclone II reconfi gurable FPGA. The Cyclone II provides control over the A-Ds and handles the distribution of the high-speed converted data while also providing confi gurable pre-processing of this data, enabling digital fi ltering, decimation, and



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Space Micro Inc.10401 Roselle Street, Suite 400, San Diego, CA 92121PH: 858-332-0700, FX: 858-332-0709, E-MAIL: [email protected] WEB: www.spacemicro.comRadiation Hardened Products and Services—Products: Proton100k Satellite Computer, Proton 200k Satellite Computer, Hardened Core microprocessor protection IC, Rad hard Level shifter IC, Microwave modules for space, Rad hard high data rate ECC chip, Reconfi gurable Microwave array IC, Encryption technology. Services: Radiation testing, System radiation design analysis

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MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS ©2006 (ISSN-1046-9079) is published monthly by PennWell Corp.,1421 S. Sheridan, Tulsa, OK 74112. Periodicals postage paid at Tulsa, OK 74101 and additional mailing offices. Editorial offices are located at 98 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, NH 03062-5737. Subscription Prices: Free to qualified subscribers in North America. Other subscribers in U.S.A $144.00 one year, $257.00 two years, $370.00 three years. Other subscribers in Canada $216.00 one year, $386.00 two years, $525.00 three years. All other International $288.00 one year, $515.00 two years, $695.00 three years. Call (847) 559-7500 for subscription information. We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that may be important for your work. If you do not want to receive those offers and/or information, please let us know by contacting us at List Services, Military & Aerospace Electronics, 98 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, NH 03062. POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS, PO Box 3295, Northbrook, IL 60065-3295. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without permission from the publisher. Back issues of Military & Aerospace electronics may be purchased at a cost of $15.00 each in the U.S., $20.00 Canada, and $25.00 elsewhere. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: P.O. Box 122, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6S4. Printed in the USA / GST NO. 126813153 / Publications Mail Agreement No. 875376. RIDE-ALONG ENCLOSED IN VERSIONS P3 & P4.

digital down conversion (DDC). The data can be transferred to the base board over the PMC interface by the Cyclone II. When attached to one of BittWare’s hybrid signal processing boards, it supports BittWare’s PMC+ extensions, which includes the four link ports directly connected to the Cyclone II FPGA. The board clocking can either be from the external clock or the on-board oscillator and is user-confi gurable. BittWare offers software development tools that allow designers to easily develop application code and integrate the Tetra-PMC+ into their systems. For user-confi gured preprocessing, Altera provides a complete suite of development tools for the Cyclone II. BittWare also offers a Tetra developer’s kit for the Cyclone II that includes the source for the A-Ds and the link ports. For more information contact BittWare online at www.bittware.com.

» CONNECTORSChip-on-fl ex fi lter connector withstands thermal shock and vibrationThe ITT Industries Electronic Components segment in Santa Ana, Calif., is offering the Cannon Chip on Flex (CoF) fi lter technology that reduces stress from thermal shock and vibration while protecting sensitive electronics in a lightweight package. In the MIL-DTL-38999 confi gurations, the CoF connectors have passed MIL-STD and MIL-DTL Series III testing for thermal shock, random vibration, humidity, and high altitude. The fi lter connectors are for high-reliability military, aerospace, and industrial applications, including integrated avionics, radio, and navigation systems, fi re-control devices, electronic countermeasures, satellite communications, and data transmitters. The Cannon CoF design replaces the internal and traditional ceramic planar-array block

capacitor with a state-of-the-art fl exible circuit in which individual chip capacitors are surface mounted on a pad adjacent to the feed-through contact. Since the feed-through contacts are not soldered directly to the capacitor, thermal stress points that infl uence performance in thermal shock and vibration has been virtually eliminated. The result is a robust fi lter connector with superior mechanical performance and improved reliability. In addition, because the fl ex is lighter in weight, a connector weight reduction of as much as 15 percent is achieved for the MIL-DTL-38999 confi gurations. For more information contact ITT Cannon online at www.ittcannon.com.

» DATA BUSES AND NETWORKINGCisco-based mobile IP network router for military and rail transit applications Parvus Corp. in Salt Lake City is introducing the DuraMAR mobile Internet protocol (IP) router for harsh mobile environments in military and rail transit applications. DuraMAR is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution that leverages Cisco Systems’ industry standard IOS software and mobile access router (MAR) technology to enable military systems integrators to explore a wide range of new in-vehicle networking applications, from wireless Internet access to voice over IP (VoIP) to streaming video surveillance and smart vehicle diagnostics/maintenance. Designed to global industry standards for vehicle/military-grade electronics, the DuraMAR integrates a robust power supply and hardened enclosure isolated against voltage spikes, transients and harsh environmental stresses (shock, vibe, humidity, temperature extremes, EMI/EMC) experienced onboard trains, aircraft, and other vehicles. The unit’s power supply also incorporates intelligent power-

management circuitry to prevent adverse power conditions from disabling the router. LED status indicators for power, network, and serial connections, as well as a console port and manual reset switch are located on the front panel. The rear panel includes a series of IP67 hardened Ethernet

and serial connectors. For more information contact Parvus online at www.parvus.com.

» SOFTWARE APPLICATIONSTightly integrated advanced RTOS and secure networking protocols Express Logic Inc. in San Diego and Interpeak Inc. in Leesburg, Va., have integrated Express Logic’s ThreadX real-time operating system (RTOS) and Interpeak’s TCP/IP stacks, which enables ThreadX customers to incorporate Interpeak’s advanced security and networking applications into their high-performance and small-footprint embedded devices. Interpeak’s dual-mode IPv4/IPv6 IPNET and IPLITE stacks are now integrated with the ThreadX RTOS. In addition to Interpeak’s TCP/IPnetworking stacks, ThreadX users can select from a suite of networking security products such as IPsec, IKEv1/v2, SSL, SSH, fi rewall, and SNMPv2/v3 to enable their embedded applications. For more information, contact Interpeak online at www.interpeak.com, or Express Logic at www.expresslogic.com.

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AEROFLEX COLORADO SPRINGS ..............34

AGC CHEMICALS AMERICAS, INC. ............18

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES ...........................6A

AP LABS ..........................................................9

BEHLMAN ELECTRONICS, INC ..................12

CRYSTAL GROUP INC ..................................30

CURTISS-WRIGHT CONTROLS, E.C. .........25

DATA DEVICE CORPORATION .......................1

DRS TECHNOLOGIES ...................................31

ELMA ELECTRONICS ...................................38

FISCHER CONNECTORS ................................4

GE FANUC .....................................................44

GENERAL DYNAMICS ..................................43

IBI SYSTEMS, INC. .......................................40

INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC

RESEARCH CORP. ....................................6

INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER .........................8

INTERSIL CORPORATION ............................32

ISOTHERMAL SYSTEMS

RESEARCH, INC. ......................................3

ITT ..................................................................29

JABIL CIRCUIT, INC. .....................................36

LASERS & PHOTONICS

MARKETPLACE SEMINAR ......................7

L-3 ELECTRODYNAMICS .............................34

LEMO USA .....................................................13

M-SYSTEMS .................................................18

MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS WEBCASTS ...................15

M.S. KENNEDY CORP. .................................12

MTC ................................................................19

PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL .........................40

PICO ELECTRONICS, INC. .............................6

RADSTONE ...................................................17

RGB SPECTRUM ...........................................40

SONY .............................................................11

SPACE MICRO, INC. .....................................40

SPECTRUM CONTROL .................................33

SPIE ...............................................................38

TEMPO ...........................................................30

TENSOLITE ....................................................10

TESTMART ..................................................14A

TEWS TECHNOLOGY ......................................6

THEMIS COMPUTER ....................................35

UNICOR ..........................................................27

UNITED ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIES ...........33

VICOR CORP. ...................................................5



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FINISH LINEVME growth outpaces 2005 projections in military COTS market Electronic-component

orders fl at in June; 12-month average continues slow riseElectronic-component orders were fl at in June, while the index showing the av-erage for the past 12 months continued its steady rise, according to the monthly report compiled by the Electronic Com-ponents, Assemblies & Materials Asso-ciation (ECA) in Arlington, Va.

“Energy prices, world tensions, lack of consumer confi dence, and the typi-cal summer lull have conspired to cre-ate some hesitancy among manufactur-ers,” says ECA President Bob Willis

“Th at hesitancy is refl ected in the four-to-fi ve-week index. Th e good news is that the 12-month average is up about nine points over last year. Corporate spending will be the key over the second half, but I expect the index to remain positive.”

Th e ECA, a sector of the Electron-ic Industries Alliance (EIA), represents manufacturers and producers of pas-sive and active electronic components, component arrays and assemblies, and materials and support services. It rep-resents more than 1,300 companies. For more information, contact the ECA online at www.ec-central.org.

Th e market for commercial-off -the-shelf (COTS) VME slot cards reached $408.7 million in 2005 for the North Ameri-can and European markets combined, according to analysts at Venture Devel-opment Corp. (VDC) in Natick, Mass.

This compares to $354.1 million, which was forecast for 2005 in the sec-ond edition of VDC’s market demand analysis released in 2004 and based on

year 2003 data. Th is represents 5.9 per-cent of additional dollar volume of VME slot card shipments to North America for military and aerospace applications, compared to the projections made for 2005 from the 2003 data.

The European market experienced an increase of 37.4 percent of addition-al dollar volume shipments from the projections made from 2003 data. Th e North American and European markets combined increased 15.4 percent over

the previous projections for 2005.There are two primary reasons for

the larger-than-projected 2005 ship-ments of COTS VME slot cards, accord-ing to VDC analysts.

First, military budgets have been in-creasing since 2003. Th is is especially true in developing European nations and the United States, which accounts for 47 per-cent of worldwide spending on defense.

The continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not only been a major factor in forcing increased defense spending, but they have also prolonged the implementa-tion of VME slot cards in some military systems.

Many systems may be switching to a newer architecture such as CompactPCI or down the road ATCA. However, the upgrades away from VME are delayed until the confl icts are over because the militaries are weary of making changes/upgrades to equipment that is being used routinely in battle situations.

Th e second reason is the continuing versatility of VME technology, which continues to reinvent itself, VDC analysts say. Th e current development of the VXS

(VITA 41) and VPX (VITA 46) stan-dards for switch-fabric implementation make the architecture much more com-petitive from a technology standpoint, which makes an upgrade to CompactP-CI or other architecture less attractive be-cause the advantages over VME are less.

Th is is not to say that the VME archi-tecture is completely safe from compet-ing architectures and the inroads these architectures are making into the COTS market and military and aerospace ap-plications, which in the past has been predominately a VME market.

CompactPCI, in particular, poses a large risk for VME as many military ap-plications are using CompactPCI, espe-cially new projects.

VME is projected to be the slowest growing architecture as the others make major inroads into the military embed-ded COTS market. Th e category “ Other Architectures” includes PCI, ATCA, ISA, PCI-ISA, and other legacy archi-tectures and has a large CAGR largely due to projected demand for ATCA and MicroTCA (although these are highly speculative in the MIL COTS market).For more information contact VDC on-line at www.vdc-corp.com.

Th e surge of corporate and fi nancial ac-tivity within the radio frequency identi-fi cation (RFID) industry is a signal that the investment community believes that the potential of RFID will become a near-to-mid-term reality, reports market researcher Venture Development Corp. (VDC) in Natick, Mass.

During last May alone, there have been numerous announcements from RFID vendors including Alien Tech-nology Inc. in Morgan Hill, Calif.; Savi

Technology Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif.; and Symbol Technologies Inc. of Holts-ville, N.Y., VDC offi cials say.

Alien Technologies, an RFID in-lay, tag, and reader manufacturer, fi led its S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) in anticipa-tion of the public off ering of its stock. With the announcement, Alien has be-come the first true “pure-play” RFID

vendor to go public. Now that Alien has put a stake in the ground, how will the company’s IPO impact the industry and infl uence the investment community?

In some ways, an Alien IPO might be considered a natural event for an RFID industry fi nally gaining some momen-tum. In other ways, an Alien IPO could look a bit like 1999, when hundreds of companies went public despite proven demand for their off erings or a predict-able cash fl ow. VDC analysts say they

believe there are cases to be made for and against investing in this off ering.

One VDC staff er says he believes the strongest argument in favor of the IPO is not for the potential return on Alien shares, but for the benefi ts the IPO will off er to the rest of the industry and the investing public.

An Alien IPO will off er perhaps the most accurate bellwether yet for track-

ing the health and wellness of the RFID market, RFID suppliers, and RFID in-vestment prospects.

Another VDC staffer sees Alien’s maneuver as a positive sign for the in-dustry, yet points out that the IPO has already initiated a new round of intel-lectual property squabbles. Moreover, Alien has never been profitable, the VDC staff er says. Th e company’s losses, in fact, have doubled over last year.

In another industry development, ma-jor defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., has acquired Savi, which is to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, managed by Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems & Solutions business unit.

VDC analysts say there is great syn-ergy between the two companies and say they believe this relationship will gener-ate benefi ts such as giving Savi access to Lockheed Martin’s GPS/satellite, sense/respond capabilities and command and control algorithms in support of ad-vanced feature supply chain solutions, while helping Lockheed Martin provide RFID technology to its customers.

Also of note in the RFID business,

Symbol and NCR Corp. in Dayton, Ohio, signed a reseller agreement that entitles NCR to resell Symbol’s port-folio of enterprise mobility products, which consists mainly of RFID read-ers and tags.

As a provider of end-to-end, global RFID solutions, NCR’s TransitionWorks portfolio of RFID solutions includes thoughtware, hardware, tags, services and soft ware. Symbol’s enterprise mobil-ity solutions are comprised of advanced data capture products, mobile comput-ers, wireless infrastructure, services, and EPC-compliant RFID products.

The partnership is expected to be benefi cial to both companies as well as the end user community in a number of ways several says, VDC analysts say.

First, the partnership will help both companies retain strong positions in the retail market. Second, the compa-nies will be able to provide a more com-plete solution for their RFID customers. In addition, NCR’s deep industry and deployment experience will be com-plemented with Symbol’s high-perfor-mance enterprise mobility solutions.

For more information contact VDC online at www.vdc-corp.com/aidc/rfid.asp.

VDC analysts say RFID industry activity is on the rise

2006 COTS slot-card shipments and projections by bus architecture ($ millions)

North America Europe

VME 303.8 100.2

CompactPCI 69.9 43.4

Other slot architectures 37.9 14.9

An Alien IPO will offer perhaps the most accurate bellwether yet for tracking the health and wellness of the RFID market.



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© 2006 GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

If you could build the perfect embedded products company, it might be something like the one we’ve created by combining the imagination, energy, and expertise of the people at GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, Condor Engineering and SBS Technologies.

It would be a company with the experience, resources and courage to develop truly innovative products—which is a cornerstone of the General Electric Company. It would be a company with a wide range of available products—everything from avionics and industrial controls to networking, communications, and fully integrated systems—which is exactly

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