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8089_WP_Dev_Tact_SFF_Rcdr_March3

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WHITE PAPER Development Tactics and Techniques for Small Form Factor RF Signal Recorders mrcy.com 2 XMC SOLUTIONS PACK PERFORMANCE IN A SMALL PACKAGE The ability to record wideband RF signals in real time is a critical par t of the development of radar, signal intelligence, beamforming and electronic war fare systems. Wideband RF downconver ters are now capable of translating a gigaher tz of RF bandwidth to intermediate frequencies (IF) with excellent dynamic range. These signals require high per formance A /D conver ters with high enough sample rates and bit resolution to sample the entire band effectively. A /D conver ters, paired with the latest FPGA technology in an XMC form factor provide a signal conversion and processing engine that can sample signals at extremely high data rates in a small package suitable for a small form factor (SFF) recorder. These XMC modules ser ve as the recorder 's front-end inter face and are used to move multiple gigabytes per second of data through the system. This paper describes the engineering considerations and design techniques used to develop a small form factor rugged recorder that can handle the extremely high data rates associated with very wide bandwidth RF signal recording. It is intended to provide engineers with ideas on how to bring this capability into confined and often extreme environments while focusing on military specification compliance, SWaP and ease of use with confidence. Figure 1: A block diagram of a Mercur y XMC module that includes A /Ds, D/As and an FPGA. XMC modules are commonly available with A /D conver ters that have maximum sample rates ranging from 200 MS/s (2 million samples per second) to 6.4 GS/s (6.4 billion samples per second). The sample rate of the A /D conver ter dictates the maximum RF signal bandwidth that can be sampled and recorded. For example, a 200 MS/s A /D conver ter with an 80% anti-aliasing filter can record 80 MHz of signal bandwidth, while a 6.4 MS/s A /D conver ter with a similarly shaped filter can record over 2.5 GHz of signal bandwidth. Some applications require a ver y wide bandwidth signal to be captured, while others require the ability to capture several channels of narrower band signals, so it is impor tant to provide an array of A /D conver ter offerings in an XMC form factor to suppor t our SFF signal recorder.

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