Evaluation Engineering - 10

MIL/AERO TEST

* Multichannel, phase-coherent RF
measurements in frequency bands
up to 40+GHz
* The ability to stream large amounts
of data across a bus, backplane, or
even over-the-air
* The capability to perform real-time,
deterministic, inline signal processing on multiple channels in parallel
* The ability to create or simulate
dozens to potentially thousands of
multi-emitter scenarios to test and
validate RADAR or EW system performance
* High dynamic range to detect both
large and small signals within a
single system
* High instantaneous bandwidth to be
able to monitor, process, and/or create signals across a wide spectrum of
frequencies simultaneously"
Colombo, ANSYS: "From our point of
view, customers want to speed up the
technology insertion and certification
systems, which grow in complexity yearafter-year. Take the F-35, for example. It
has 177 times more software on board
than the F-16, with a development effort
estimated to be 298 times greater. This
software is supervising critical activities,
so it must be verified and tested in every
possible situation. The next generation of
aircraft will be even more complex: testing can only be digital. Another important
request involves evaluating COTS parts
to ensure they can be used in a warfare
environment with confidence."
Eijkelenburg, Pacific Power Source:
"Customers are asking for more flexible
programmable power solutions that not
only support higher power levels found in
newer airframes, but also higher voltage
ranges and the ability to test both AC and
DC power systems."
Stasonis, Pickering: "Diagnostics-As
switching is primarily a mechanical environment, it is possible that a switching
system can be damaged by events such
as a mistake when generating the test
code or the testing of a defective DUT.
To facilitate the timely field repair of a
damaged switch module, Pickering offers

10

EVALUATION ENGINEERING AUGUST 2019

Sponsored by

BIRST (Built-In Relay Self-Test) at no extra
cost on many of our high-density switching matrices."
McCarthy, Rohde & Schwarz: "Support
for beamforming and antenna array measurements from the IC test, to the T/R
module, and even including over-the-air
testing. Fielding new technologies such as
the multifunction radar or phased-array
LEO tracking antennas is one of the biggest challenges facing the aerospace and
defense industry."
Woppman, ASSET InterTech: "We are beginning to see adoption of fast in-system
programming solutions as memory size
increases."

Tektronix' RSA518 ruggedized spectrum analyzer.

Barnard, Tektronix: "1) Ruggedized, portable systems for field and range testing
applications. Increased channel counts
and frequency are of related importance
to many range-focused Mil/Aero customers. 2) Recording capabilities that enable
extended logging of real-time RF I & Q
data at high bandwidths. 3) Advanced
triggers that allow real-time spectrum
analyzers to detect spurious, intermittent, or anomalous signals that swepttuned instruments will miss."

Now on the market
Here are the Mil/Aero test solutions that
vendors told us they've recently made
available.
Sargeant , Marvin Test Solutions:
"Flightline test continues to evolve with
the enhanced capabilities delivered by

our SmartCan Gen2 Universal O-Level
Armament Test Set (MTS-3060A). The
choice of an ever-growing number of
customers worldwide for O-Level test of
both smart and legacy armament systems, the SmartCan replaces multiple
inadequate or obsolete test sets with an
easy-to-use handheld test solution. The
MTS-3060A provides increased test functionality, expanded weapons capability,
enhanced cybersecurity, extended battery
life, and more communication channels
than any other handheld armament test
solution on the flightline today. The ability
to test the functionality of the MIL-STD
1760 Bus, combined with the simultaneous testing of multiple squib signals and
a unique cross-fire algorithm, provides a
robust test process that is superior to the
single-channel or dual-channel methods
offered by legacy test systems."
Vondran, Astronics: "We've grown our
portfolio of PXI based instrumentation for
depot-level legacy support systems. With
the introduction of the ATS-3100 PXI integration platform, we've empowered our
Mil/Aero customers with a path to customize test solutions in a modular and
easily reproducible fashion. The recent
development of the ATS-6100 portable
platform, including the wire fault test
(ATS-6100 WFT) solution is directly targeted to support field level test for cabling
and other signal-based issues plaguing
the aging fleet of aircraft in service today.
Our radio testing capability continues to
evolve through our software-defined test
applications capability."
Amplifier Research: "AR has developed
the AA series of field generating products for producing high-frequency, lowlevel electric fields. For traditional test
configurations, today's current market
requires expensive solid-state or TWT
amplifiers to generate field strengths of
20-50 V/m from 18-40 GHz. These are the
same amps that are used for generating
200 V/m. Rather than requiring customers to pay for power they don't need, the
AA series products are a fraction of the
cost of traditional amp/antenna solutions, while offering greater reliability
than TWT amplifiers."
http://www.rsleads.com/908ee-908 http://www.rsleads.com/908ee-177 http://www.rsleads.com/908ee-176 http://www.rsleads.com/908ee-179 http://www.rsleads.com/908ee-179 http://www.rsleads.com/908ee-180 http://www.rsleads.com/908ee-180
Evaluation Engineering

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Evaluation Engineering
