Intus GmbH, a leading supplier of radio and microwave modules and systems, is using Anadigm's Field Programmable Analog Array (FPAA) technology in a receiver/tone decoder system for aerospace applications.
The Intus product will be used to decode secure commands transmitted from the ground to vehicles in flight. Intus selected the FPAA instead of discrete components to perform analog filtering in its tone decoder to ensure that performance is consistent across the whole industrial temperature range without any need for manual adjustments. Because the FPAA is based on switched capacitor architecture, where the parameters of the implemented functions depend on the ratio of two capacitors rather than the absolute value of a single capacitor, the implemented corner frequency of the filter shows minimal variation across process and temperature.
“By using the FPAA, we eliminate a tedious adjustment process to compensate for various component tolerances, and we obtain the accurate performance across a wide temperature range that this application requires," said Bernhard Humpert, design engineer at Intus GmbH. "We get a further advantage because the FPAA is programmable. This gives us much more flexibility in our manufacturing process because the device can be programmed after manufacturing to match customer specifications and can be reprogrammed as needed by the customer.”
Anadigm's proprietary FPAA technology brings the industry an analog equivalent to the FPGA, allowing complex analog signal conditioning and processing functions to be integrated within an off-the-shelf, pre-tested device. Typical applications include signal conditioning, filtering, data acquisition, and closed-loop control in a wide range of industrial, automotive, medical, communications, automatic test equipment, and instrumentation systems where FPAAs are used to replace discrete components or analog ASIC/ASSP devices.
For more information, visit www.anadigm.com.
