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WHITE PAPER Development Tactics and Techniques for Small Form Factor RF Signal Recorders mrcy.com 6 While we have already focused on reducing the size of our RF signal recorder, designing for weight and power reduction require additional strategies. The good news is that weight and power have a direct relationship in that the lower the power consumption, the less heat dissipated by the system. Removal of heat from the system's electronics via conduction requires conductive materials such as aluminum or copper. While copper is more effective for conducting heat, its density is far greater than aluminum, adding undesirable extra weight to the recorder. In order to design for reduced weight we must minimize the power consumption of the system and use lightweight materials like aluminum with efficient thermal paths to the cooling channels designed into the system. High speed recording systems often do not require a tremendous amount of processing power. Since hardware DMA controllers are used to move data to disk, processors are often used to simply "manage" the data flow. Intel's latest i7 processors are now offered in versions with lower clock rates and power consumption. An eight generation i7, clocking at 2.4 GHz limits power consumption to 35 watts and can be configured to draw as little as 25 watts. Furthermore, efficient FPGA designs allow digital signal processing to reside in smaller, more efficient FPGAs. Xilinx 's Kintex Ultrascale family offers excellent performance with significant power reduction over previous generation FPGAs. Component selection and an efficient design help to control the power consumption and dissipation of the recorder, allowing us to use less material for heat sinking and reduce the total weight of the package. EASE-OF-USE CONSIDERATIONS While SWaP factors are important design considerations during the development of a SFF RF signal recorder, it is equally important that the system is designed to be easy to use from both a hardware and software standpoint. Designing a system in a standard form factor helps to simplify the installation process by providing familiar mounting mechanisms in a common and proven footprint. ARINC 404 is an aeronautical standard that specifies mechanical dimensions of line replaceable units (LRUs) and their racking systems in aircraft. ARINC 404 specifies dimensions for several sizes of ATRs (Air Transport Racks), providing us with a choice of standard footprints for our signal recorder. It is important to design a system that can be installed in an aircraft or vehicle in a permanent fashion but still provide accessibility to the user. Easy to swap modular components like fans, drives and other parts of non- volatile memory within the recorder allows the system to be serviced and sanitized of classified or otherwise sensitive data easily. All removable components should be accessible via the front panel of the system using captive hardware without the requirement of special tools. Software should include a straight forward and simple Application Programming Interface (API) to control the system as well as a suite of RF signal analysis tools to allow users to instantly analyze recorded data. RF signal recorders typically provide a gigabit Ethernet interface for control of the unit from an external computer. This interface can also be used to stream data to allow users to monitor RF signals prior to, during and after a recording. It is essential to be able to remotely control the recorder to allow it to operate in unmanned environments. These environments often require the user to create a custom control interface making the API an important part of the recorder. It is also desirable to provide a fully functional graphical user interface (GUI) to allow users to operate the system immediately out of the box. The GUI should also be able to run remotely. APPLICATIONS FOR SFF RF SIGNAL RECORDING RF signal recording is a critical component of any radar, signal intelligence, beamforming or electronic warfare system. A well designed system provides excellent RF signal acquisition hardware that is small, lightweight, low power, and capable of operating in a wide range of operating environments. Features such as drive packs and other serviceable modular components make our RF signal recorder easy to install and maintain in tight spaces, allowing ultra-wide bandwidth RF signal recording to reside in places never before possible. Ultra-wide bandwidth RF signal recorders have allowed engineers to capture large swaths of the RF spectrum necessary for wide bandwidth radar systems and improved SIGINT capabilities. While real-time recording of a gigahertz or more of RF bandwidth is commonly available in 19" rackmountable systems, shrinking this capability into a form factor suitable for UAVs, aircraft pods, or other confined spaces has proven challenging for the industry. Small, rugged packages must be capable of operating in extreme environments while providing similar storage capacities and data streaming throughputs as larger systems.

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