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Special Report Hardening GPS
Mil Tech Trends
Converting ocean waves into power
Industry Spotlight
CMOSS brings speed, cost benefits www.MilitaryEmbedded.com
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Mike Hopper’s impact
16 36 40
Nov/Dec 2021 | Volume 17 | Number 8
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P 34 Making power ICs more affordable By Anton Quiroz, Apogee Semiconductor
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 16
November/December 2021 Volume 17 | Number 8
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COLUMNS Editor’s Perspective 5 Mike Hopper’s impact on media and VME’s beginnings By John McHale
Mil Tech Insider 7 Securing telemetry data with commercial encryption standards
FEATURES SPECIAL REPORT: Tech for navigating GPS-denied environments 10 Soldiers in GPS-denied environments require sensor-powered navigation tech By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor
By Paul Cook
THE LATEST
14 The relative and the absolute: A MOSA path to complementary position,
navigation, and time information for GPS
Defense Tech Wire 8 By Emma Helfrich
By Jason DeChiaro, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions
Editor’s Choice Products 44 By Mil Embedded Staff
16 Preserving operational capabilities by hardening GPS By Justin Wymore, BAE Systems
Connecting with Mil Embedded 46 By Mil Embedded Staff
20 GPS-denied navigation expands the threshold for mission-critical drone use cases By Chad Sweet, ModalAI
MIL TECH TRENDS: Military power supplies 24 Powering high-performance, ultrareliable RF systems in military electronics By Ted Prema, Times Microwave Systems 28 Powering SpaceVPX systems – How to implement efficient standards-compliant
solutions faster
By Tim Meade, CAES 8
WEB RESOURCES Subscribe to the magazine or E-letter Live industry news | Submit new products http://submit.opensystemsmedia.com
34 Making power ICs more affordable By Anton Quiroz, Apogee Semiconductor 36 Helping the U.S. Navy convert ocean waves into perpetual power By Bill Schmitz, Vicor
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: Open standards for embedded military systems
WHITE PAPERS – Read: https://militaryembedded.com/whitepapers
40 CMOSS: Building-block architecture brings speed, cost benefits By Sally Cole, Senior Editor
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ON THE COVER: Before the wide use of satellite-based GPS and navigation apps, military troops relied on old-school navigation methods – like the trusty military-issue lensatic compass – that don’t require batteries or connectivity. In this 2018 photo, a paratrooper orients himself with his compass as part of a training mission at Joint Base ElmendorfRichardson in Alaska. Paratroopers in Alaska do not use GPS devices during training. Army photo by Sgt. Alexander Skripnichuk/courtesy U.S. Department of Defense.
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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE
Mike Hopper’s impact on media and VME’s beginnings By John McHale, Editorial Director We’re on the eve of celebrating of OpenSystems Media’s 40th anniversary with the 40th birthday of our first publication, VMEbus Systems, which directly follows the 40th anniversary of the VMEbus standard this year. However, the celebrations are bittersweet as we also mourn the loss of one of our company’s founding partners and the father of our current President Pat Hopper: Mike Hopper. Mike passed away on October 24. He was 84.
Mike Hopper
“I lost my best friend, business partner, and father to God in Heaven,” says Pat Hopper, President of OSM. “He will be missed by all that knew him.”
Born January 18, 1937, in Detroit to Mildred and Frank Hopper, Mike graduated from the University of Detroit, according to Mike’s obituary in the Gross Pointe News, which you can read at www.grossepointenews.com/articles/michael-francis-hopper/. In addition to Pat and his wife Kate, Mike is survived by his wife of 55 years, Janet; his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Todd; and seven grandchildren. In the early 1980s, Mike, an experienced publisher, was approached by VITA Standards Organization leadership to start a magazine on a new standard called VMEbus; in this role he would work with John Black – a co-inventor of the VMEbus technology while at Motorola – as his editor and partner on the magazine, dubbed VMEbus Systems (see first issue, right), which is still around today as VITA Technologies. Mike ran the business side, with John handling the editorial; several years after that, the late Wayne Kristoff joined them to handle production. Thus, OpenSystems Publishing was formed. Close to 40 years later, the company – now called OpenSystems Media – reaches audiences across the globe and spans multiple brands in markets from automotive, aerospace, and defense to industrial, medical, IoT, and more. VME turns 40 The VMEbus standard, which marked its 40th anniversary in October 2021, might be the longest-lasting single standard in the history of computing; it has kept up with technology by supporting backwards compatibility while enabling technology upgrades and is still in use across a broad range of applications. Released in 1981, the first draft of the VMEbus specification was written by Black, Craig McKenna of Mostek, and Cecil Kaplinsky of Signetics/Philips. VME was originally called VERSAbus-E by
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Motorola engineers, as it was based on the VERSAbus developed by Motorola, according to the VITA (VMEbus International Standards Organization) website. The VITA standards group was formed in 1985 out of what was the VMEbus Manufacturers Group. For more on these groups and other VMEbus history, visit www.vita.com/History. I first wrote about the VMEbus specification in late 1996 in my 20s; now VMEbus is 40 and I’m over 50. Wow. But there’s more rust on me than on VME, as VME-based products are still being designed into military programs today. “According to ‘The world market for VITA standard-based boards and systems – 2021 edition,’ VMEbus is still demonstrating a 2.8% growth in boards revenue and holding stable at 1.7% growth in systems revenue,’” reports VITA Executive Director Jerry Gipper in his most recent VITA Technologies Editor’s Foreword, titled “Salute to VMEbus!” In many ways, VME was the seed for today Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) strategy being mandated by the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy as well as for the Sensor Open Systems Architecture Technical Standard. “VMEbus pioneered much of the work in [MOSA], which paved the way for efforts like those undertaken by SOSA,” Gipper writes in his column. “The market awareness, ecosystem development, and policies established by VMEbus efforts are the foundation of many of the initiatives throughout the critical embedded computing industry today.” Gipper notes that “few of the original VMEbus suppliers still exist under their company names of 1981, but many are still around as divisions and subsidiaries of today’s suppliers.” I’m happy to note that the first VMEbus publisher, OpenSystems Media, is still going strong, and that its success and longevity can be traced directly to our co-founder Mike Hopper’s skill, acumen, and experience. So, while we celebrate the longevity of our company and the standard that launched it, our thoughts are with our colleague Pat and his loved ones. We are forever grateful for the company that Mike helped create all those years ago – a company that’s more like a family. To leave a message for the Hopper family, visit https://www. youngcolonial.com/obituaries/Michael-Hopper-4/#!/Obituary.
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS November/December 2021
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SeaLevel Systems, Inc. – Dust. Dirt. Liquids. Gases. Flames. Bring it.
GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR John McHale john.mchale@opensysmedia.com ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Lisa Daigle lisa.daigle@opensysmedia.com SENIOR EDITOR Sally Cole sally.cole@opensysmedia.com TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Emma Helfrich emma.helfrich@opensysmedia.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Stephanie Sweet stephanie.sweet@opensysmedia.com SENIOR WEB DEVELOPER Aaron Ganschow aaron.ganschow@opensysmedia.com WEB DEVELOPER Paul Nelson paul.nelson@opensysmedia.com CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Joann Toth joann.toth@opensysmedia.com EMAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST Drew Kaufman drew.kaufman@opensysmedia.com VITA EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jerry Gipper jerry.gipper@opensysmedia.com
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MIL TECH INSIDER
Securing telemetry data with commercial encryption standards By Paul Cook An industry perspective from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions Telemetry data from military flight tests often needs to be secured, not only when at rest, but also while in motion across a network or a telemetry link. While flight-test vehicles are generally not deployed in adversarial environments, their data can be particularly at risk due to the newness, and therefore the desirability, of the technology. For example, there is a risk of data loss on a hypersonic flight-test vehicle due to the possibility of a test aircraft being captured by other parties, by data being stolen by bad actors, or by data interception on what could be a very long flight path. In the U.S., classified telemetry has been encrypted data since the late 1970s, due to a mandate that all telemetry data be made secure during transmission. Meanwhile, much of the unclassified data has historically been transmitted unencrypted. The telemetry industry has traditionally relied on the NSA to provide leadership and/ or solutions to encrypt telemetry data for streaming (data-in-motion) applications. This system has worked well over the years but it’s not actually practical for data in transit that is not classified, data that is considered private, or programs with short development cycles. Frequently, system designers are under the impression that NSA Suite A cryptography is their only option for protecting critical telemetry data. While Suite A is necessary for protecting some categories of sensitive information, in many other cases the Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite (CNSA) – a 2018 replacement of NSA Suite B – can be implemented if handled correctly. CNSA is a set of cryptographic algorithms designed to protect U.S. National Security Systems information up to the top-secret level. It offers notable advantages over Suite A, including less-restrictive foreign military sales, the ability to control the encryption keys (Suite A keys are produced and managed by the NSA), and typically faster and less expensive implementation. Using a CNSA-type approach, users can avoid the additional controls associated with an NSA short title yet gain a certified solution for secure data transmission. Certifications for commercial implementations can be obtained through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the NSA. Recently, the process has changed to include a Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) as a popular alternate approval path: The CSfC focuses on a CNSA encryption solution or AES-256 with various combinations of software and hardware implementations appropriate to the use case. The NIST also provides a process of certifying encryption devices similar to the processes within the NSA. The NIST uses a third-party lab to evaluate the encryption process and the key-management process, along with other dedicated tests to complete the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS-140-2) certification at one of four levels of security. Typically, the encrypted telemetry is decrypted on the ground with a rackmount box that features the specific ground telemetry interface and uses a single-ended TTL [transistor-to-transistor logic] with 50-ohm drive capability. A better approach is to provide the encrypt and decrypt interfaces in a single assembly, which enables the data to be looped back, providing high assurance of the equipment’s operation. An example of a telemetry encryption solution for flight-test programs is CurtissWright’s MESP-100, a three-module set that secures two channels of streaming telemetry data using commercial grade AES-256. It supports both the encrypt-decrypt www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 1 | The MESP-100 encryption support package for flight test instrumentation (shown in PCM encoder stack) supports the use of commercial encryption to protect critical telemetry data.
functions in one assembly and supports secure bidirectional transmissions when using two devices. (Figure 1.) Such technology was developed to provide data privacy for exportable equipment for platforms that fall outside of the U.S. and provide an easier way to secure data not subject to the rigors of NSA Suite A. It protects streaming telemetry data originating from modern ARTM [advanced range telemetry] transmitters. It integrates a NIST-certified device from a well-known vendor of secure crypto modules and implements it in a traditional telemetry form factor (including expected interfaces), enabling the telemetry community to secure unclassified data with the interfaces they are accustomed to from the NSA implementation. Paul Cook is director of missile systems and RF product line manager at Teletronics Technology Corporation, a Curtiss-Wright company. Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions https://www.curtisswrightds.com/
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DEFENSE TECH WIRE NEWS | TRENDS | DOD SPENDS | CONTRACTS | TECHNOLOGY UPDATES
By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor Ground radar from Thales aims to provide full-spectrum coverage Thales introduced its Ground Observer 20 Multi-Mission radar (GO 20 MM) radar designed to combine ground and low-level air surveillance for troops. The radar is also engineered to offer early detection and automatic classification of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The GO20 MM is intended to provide continuous 360-degree 3D coverage. Running through a rugged interface, the system’s operators can recognize a threat and thereby decide on the plan of attack. For use in asymmetric conflicts or high-density combat, the ability to classify vehicles automatically, to get a fast situation picture, is designed into the system. The GO20 MM is transFigure 1 | The GO 20 MM radar system enables early detection of unmanned portable and can be set up by two soldiers to redeploy for vehicles. Thales photo. a new mission. Thales officials intend that the GO20 MM be used by armed and special forces to maintain situational awareness for hours by choosing to opt out of the generator option, and instead incorporate a six-pack battery.
U. S. Army contracts for surveillance, IFF capabilities from Raytheon Intelligence & Space Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S – a Raytheon Technologies business) won a $17.5 million ID/IQ contract from the U.S. Army to provide improved Mode 5 and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) surveillance capabilities for safe airspace engagement with its “Identification Friend or Foe” (IFF) transponders and cryptographic technologies. Under the terms of the contract, RI&S will provide the Army with APX-119 transponders, digital-control panels, personality modules, KIV-77 crypto modules, crypto simulators, and mounting trays for Foreign Military Sales platforms. IFF – an identification system that enables military and civilian air-traffic control interrogation systems to identify aircraft, vehicles, or forces as friendly, enemy, or neutral – ran on Mode 4 since the 1960s; the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) mandated the conversion for all systems to Mode 5 during 2020.
Software-defined tactical radios to support Army HMS program L3Harris Technologies has received full-rate production orders for the U.S. Army’s Handheld, Manpack, and Small Form-Fit (HMS) program providing advanced multichannel, multimission communications for the Integrated Tactical Network. The Army awarded L3Harris more than $200 million for the multichannel, softwaredefined Falcon IV AN/PRC-163 handheld Leader radios and AN/PRC-158 manpack radios that will enable multimission networking capabilities. The radios are also intended to support the Army’s unified network strategy, which Army officials state will enable increased flexibility to upgrade waveforms as new technology emerges. The Army’s ID/IQ contracts for the handheld Leader and manpack radios include a five-year base and an additional five-year option, with a ceiling of more than $16 billion. The Army expects to purchase approximately 100,000 two-channel Leader Radios and 65,000 HMS Manpack radios.
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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Figure 2 | Troops are shown equipped with software-defined radios (SDRs) during a training exercise. L3Harris photo.
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Hypersonic rocket motor moves closer to flight testing with Navy The Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) conducted a second test of its first-stage solid rocket motor (SRM) as part of the development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) offensive hypersonic strike capability and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW). According to Navy officials, this SRM test is part of a series of tests validating the newly developed common hypersonic missile. These tests are important in developing a Navy-designed common hypersonic missile that both the Navy and Army will field. The common hypersonic missile will consist of the first stage SRM as part of a new missile booster combined with the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHGB). The Navy and Army are on track to test the full common hypersonic missile that will be a catalyst for fielding the CPS and LRHW weapon systems.
Figure 3 | The U.S. Navy, in collaboration with the U.S. Army, conducts a staticfire test of the first stage of the newly developed 34.5-inch common hypersonic missile that will be fielded by both services. U.S. Navy/Northrop Grumman photo.
Cybersecurity pilot program to automate weapons-systems assessments Viasat has won a Department of Defense (DoD) contract to provide vulnerability assessment testing and response support under a new pilot program focused on improving the cybersecurity and resilience of DoD weapons systems. According to company officials, Viasat will be the first external cybersecurity team to perform these assessments through the pilot program, which aims to drive efficiencies to automate mission and threat-based security assessments at scale. As part of the pilot, Viasat will analyze key components within a complex, interconnected DoD weapons-system architecture that could be vulnerable to an attack. The analysis will also include cyber and software-defined radio (SDR) threat assessments to address networking, Internet of Things (IoT), and radio-frequency interfaces to the weapons system. Viasat offcials say that the company was selected based on the company’s long experience in handling DoD cybersecurity.
AI and machine learning software to support U.S. Navy shipboard IT Software company CORAS has won a prototype project agreement (PPA) with the U.S. Navy’s Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic for the Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP) that aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to improve and troubleshoot shipboard information technology (IT) systems. According to the terms of the agreement, CORAS will leverage AI and natural language processing (NLP) software from Plasticity, a company in McLean, Virginia, that makes software for semantic language understanding, question answering, and entity extraction. According to CORAS president Dan Naselius, implementing Plasticity’s capabilities within CORAS’ FedRAMP High Cloud security framework will enable the U.S. Navy to leverage data and root-cause IT analysis.
Open architecture ground-based weapon system in development for Army Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, has won a contract with the U.S. Army Program Executive Office Missiles and Space for the Enduring Indirect Fires Protection Capability (IFPC) to produce and supply its mobile ground-based weapon system. According to the company, the transportable system is designed to engage and defeat cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) threats. According to Dynetics officials, the Enduring Shield system was designed with an open system architecture that is intended to provide flexibility and growth, as well as full integration with the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS). The system is designed to provide a 360-degree air defense envelope with the ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously. www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 4 | A rendering of Dynetics’ Enduring Shield solution for the U.S. Army’s Indirect Fires Protection Capability program. Dynetics image.
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SPECIAL REPORT
Tech for navigating GPS-denied environments
Before the wide use of satellite-based GPS and navigation apps, military troops relied on old-school navigation methods – like the trusty military-issue lensatic compass – that don’t require batteries or connectivity. In this 2018 photo, a paratrooper orients himself with his compass as part of a training mission at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. Paratroopers in Alaska do not use GPS devices during training. Army photo by Sgt. Alexander Skripnichuk/courtesy U.S. Department of Defense.
Soldiers in GPS-denied environments require sensor-powered navigation tech By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor Knowing your exact location, how you got there, and how to get back are luxuries that the military on the move doesn’t always have the option to exercise. The satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) – such a staple of modern navigation – is undeniably a technological feat but can become an exploitable weakness when manipulated by an adversary. Technologies designed to operate in GPS-denied environments are being engineered in response to the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) need to operate in areas where navigational infrastructures simply cannot exist.
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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
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To combat these emerging invisible threats to the military’s valuable PNT and GPS data, electronics manufacturers are looking to technologies like onboard sensors and inertial navigation to gradually reduce the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) dependence on vulnerable mapping systems. Optimizing size, weight, and power (SWaP) for these tools and enabling them with artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) mean that these electronics are increasingly becoming trusted options. Technical obstacles GPS is a successful capability that’s used widely across defense and consumer spaces, because everyone knows how to use it; this makes the military’s reliance on it difficult to sway. Attractive sensor-based options are being brought to market, however, aimed at minimizing the DoD’s dependence on satellitepowered GPS. “With the emergence of global threats to GPS driving the need to reduce dependence on a single sensor, new sensor solutions are being leveraged more broadly for navigation,” says Matt Bousselot, technical fellow for PNT Systems at Collins Aerospace (Cedar Rapids, Iowa). “Multisensor navigation systems now routinely include the sensing of non-GPS radio frequency (RF) signals, acceleration, gravity, magnetic fields, imaging, barometric pressure, and even the vibration of a cesium atom. But each sensor type has its own set of limitations.” Much to the dismay of a soldier operating in a GPS-denied or -degraded environment, the truth is that most high-accuracy, high-precision navigation occurs within some semblance of infrastructure. Whether that infrastructure is a constellation of satellites, Wi-Fi beacons, or a 4G LTE-powered network, however, such capabilities are often missing on the battlefield. Even so, most wireless navigation systems by default don’t assume the existence of an adversary. What has proven to be a revolutionary technology in civilian and commercial realms isn’t always designed with the hostile environments that war forges in mind. This reality makes it increasingly more difficult for the armed forces to map a location they weren’t invited to map in the first place. Long-range, artillery-based approaches to taking out domestic satellites – thus rendering GPS navigation impossible – are undoubtedly hazardous to the U.S. military, but these weapons can at least be tracked. It’s the electronic jamming and spoofing of position, navigation, and timing (PNT) signals that pose a real and relevant threat to critical day-to-day military functions. www.militaryembedded.com
Many of these limitations occur at the edge of sensor processing: Without GPSpowered systems to rely on, battlefieldcapable technology for position and navigation must operate in a self-contained manner. These sensors are being designed to be successful in GPS-denied environments without getting assistance from external mapping resources and capabilities. “Half of the problem is in achieving situational understanding, often at the edge sensor or platform itself,” says Sean O’Hara, director of AI and ML at SRC, Inc. (Syracuse, New York.) “The solution for re-establishing navigation and timing
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SPECIAL REPORT
Tech for navigating GPS-denied environments
may be situational, depending on the local operating environment; how GPS is being denied, degraded, or otherwise affected; and the tactical and strategic resources available to support re-establishment at the edge sensor or platform.” Inertial-based navigation (Figure 1) can provide a uniquely specific situational understanding when used on respective platforms like armored vehicles, aircraft missiles, or ships. However, equipping the dismounted soldier with inertial navigation systems presents a different set of obstacles. “The problem with those systems is that the inertial sensors are highly tuned to the platform’s dynamic characteristics,” says George Hsu, chief technology officer at PNI Sensor (Santa Rosa, California). “Almost all those kinds of platforms are vehicles, so those motion dynamics are relatively easy to model so they work well and can determine location for a long period of time with high accuracy. SWaP concerns aside, those models don’t work on a warfighter because a human doesn’t move in the same way a ship, plane, or vehicle does.” (Figure 2.) Put simply, the warfighter is a different kind of asset: Not only do they move differently, but there is a higher volume of them than, for instance, a fleet of infantry vehicles. These factors can drive up the cost and the need for SWaP-optimized sensor electronics for navigation.
Figure 1 | PNI Sensor’s TRAX2 is aimed at use in unmanned systems that need accurate orientation while moving (dynamic motion) and can operate in different types of environments.
“Inertial sensors and clocks drift over time, image navigation is challenged over featureless terrain, and non-GPS RF signals can be subject to electronic warfare (EW) attacks just like GPS,” Bousselot says. “It turns out there is no single sensor existing today that can provide the broad capability and performance of GPS without also being subject to similar contested and denied environments. The challenge is to identify a set of sensors with pros and cons that complement each other such that they collectively meet the performance needs and fit within SWaP and cost requirements for the application.” Sensor SWaP constraints Bousselot goes on to explain that maintaining low-power solutions, especially when designing soldier-worn applications, is notably difficult because additional capability is a must when mitigating threats and providing navigation for GPS-denied arenas. Essentially, power requirements vary depending on the position and timing mission (Figure 3). “As a system provider we work with our subsystem suppliers to find low-power solutions for each sensor and processing component in the design,” Bousselot says. “When possible, we use system-on-chip technologies to leverage hard cells and firmware for functions that would consume more power if implemented as software functions. At the system level, we design power supplies customized to the
Figure 3 | SRC’s engineers have developed SDRs to fit a variety of SWaP requirements on various platforms.
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Figure 2 | PNI Sensor’s Direction of Motion/Dismounted Soldier Tracking (DOM DST) technology decomposes motionsensing data into constituent directional components.
application with a focus on improving efficiency, reducing conversion power loss, and developing advanced powersaving software algorithms.” Pulling from commercial technology is another method through which electronics manufacturers are attempting to develop more SWaP-optimized navigational sensors for defense. Consumerand automotive-grade inertial sensors are already designed with SWaP in mind – they just need to be customized to better fit military mission objectives. “We take the best of the existing lowSWaP sensors and try to make them overperform for this type of application,” Hsu says. “We’re taking consumer MEMS [microelectromechanical systems], gyros, and accelerometers and trying to make www.militaryembedded.com
them work like a tactical or navigationgrade gyro. That’s hard to do on its own, so then we add our proprietary magnetic sensor and that kind of balances the errors that you would see using a low-performance gyro.” This approach does have its drawbacks: Magnetic sensors can be very susceptible to interference from certain materials, including steel. Hsu suggests that AI could be beneficial in gathering reference bearings by using algorithms to determine whether the magnetic field has been compromised. According to some experts, this is just one of the many ways AI could supplement GPSdenied operations. Leveraging AI for position “Machine intelligence plays a key role in addressing these challenges,” SRC’s O’Hara says. “The first area of support is in deep, or high-dimensional, sensing to assist with situational understanding. This involves using deep learning approaches across multiple sensing domains like radio frequency, computer vision domain, and others to assist in determining the current state. This state typically consists of an estimate of where the platform or sensor is, and an estimate of what context the current operational environment is in.” O’Hara adds that AI could even aid in assessing operational context by selecting actions to fine-tune the capabilities of the sensor, depending on the environment. When the sensor being used isn’t necessarily designed for human motion, identifying specific movements could also be better enabled using AI algorithms. “When you’re trying to do inertial-based navigation, you’re trying to record every motion that they make to see if it’s a motion that moved them from one point to another,” Hsu says. “And you have to try to suppress all of the motions that they are engaging in that are non-movement-based motions. And that kind of decision-making is well-suited for AI – a good solution for movement classification like walking, crawling, and other kinds of motions.” www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 4 | Collins Aerospace photo depicts the Mounted Assured Position Navigation and Timing [A-PNT] system units designed for antijamming installed on U.S. Army Stryker vehicles.
When looking at this type of AI-powered sensor from a signal-processing standpoint, the nonlinear approach could be ideal for transient events like that of GPS-denied navigation. It’s safe to say that adaptable cognitive sensing will be a requisite step in the evolution of deeper situational understanding in degraded environments. Potential next steps in sensor navigation “We will continue to see more powerful machine intelligence-enabled sensing capabilities emerge and eventually become ubiquitous,” O’Hara says. “High dimensional sensing and sensor processing are quickly becoming the norm, and they offer significant improvements in the estimation of both state and context. These deep-sensing approaches are further enhanced by making the sensors themselves achieve greater levels of autonomy.” Achieving that autonomy seems to have influenced significant aspects of sensornavigation innovation. When a capability as ubiquitous as GPS fails, it is paramount to the warfighter to know that the employed failsafe will get them where they need to go safely and accurately (Figure 4). “If you really break down the solution to this problem as being a fully self-contained navigation device for the dismounted soldier,” Hsu says, “then what’s going to happen is as that technology improves, the multidomain command center will recognize the accuracy of the sensors and will hopefully have that decision-making layer to realize that every dismounted soldier is a sensor that can be used to help map out the situation on the ground.” In scenarios where any and all communications capabilities could be challenged or weaponized, these technologies may aid the military in becoming its own infrastructure within a more connected battlespace. While GPS-denied navigation advancements aren’t intended to replace the capability altogether, these sensor technologies are successfully augmenting networking, communications, and mapping for the warfighter. “Of course, no one can predict the future, but one application that I am excited about is the use of A-PNT [assured position, navigation, and timing] sensors across mesh networks to provide capability for constrained platforms that can’t host the full A-PNT hardware suite,” Bousselot says. “Such platforms include UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], ALEs [air-launched effects], or robotic applications. In addition, the widespread proliferation of adaptive array technologies for GNSS [global navigation satellite system] and LEO [low Earth orbit] satnav sensors along with more accurate, low-SWaP inertial and clock sensors have the potential to make a real impact on global mission effectiveness.” MES
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS November/December 2021
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SPECIAL REPORT
The relative and the absolute: A MOSA path to complementary position, navigation, and time information for GPS By Jason DeChiaro The use of a modular open systems approach (MOSA) will benefit the effort to integrate alternative position, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies into platforms. In addition, a MOSA can increase competition and innovation while reducing the use and associated costs of proprietary systems. The U.S. military has become increasingly dependent on data provided by GPS satellites. The GPS constellation consists of 31 medium-Earth orbit satellites that provide the military with its primary source of position, navigation and timing (PNT) information. PNT data is used to determine location, ascertain orientation, and plan routes, while enabling the fusion of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data. Beginning in the 1970s, the Navy was the first to use GPS; later, during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, GPS use was expanded to ground vehicles. Today, it’s estimated the Army has 500,000 GPS receivers in use.
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With such a valuable system in place, it is not surprising that GPS is under threat. In 2020, a congressional defense task force reported that GPS could be a single point of failure for the U.S. military. Adversaries are actively developing electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, such as GPS jammers and spoofers, as well as ground-based antisatellite weapons. Access to continual GPS data requires a clear line of sight between the platform and the satellites, which is not always possible in urban combat situations. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes the threat posed by the possible loss of this critical battlefield infrastructure. Consequently, the Pentagon is now upgrading the GPS system: Under the GPS III program, the U.S. Space Force is developing and deploying new satellites that use M-Code, a stronger military navigation signal that gives users superior capabilities including better defense against jamming. A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) technology assessment, “Defense Navigation Capabilities,” published in May 2021, determined that “a variety of solutions are required to provide PNT information across all DoD platforms. To that end, DoD’s approach is to develop a range of alternative PNT sources, with a focus on complementary GPS.” DoD is actively looking at additional technologies that can be used to verify or complement GPS data when it is denied or reduced by adversaries or environmental conditions. Alternative GPS sources work together, whether GPS information is denied or not, to verify the accuracy of all available PNT data sources and to consolidate known true PNT information in case one of the sources is unavailable or untrusted. The two main types of complementary PNT information are relative PNT and absolute PNT. Relative PNT uses on-platform sensors, such as inertial sensors and chip-scale atomic and/or optical clocks. In the absence of an external signal these sensors can determine a platform’s location and provide accurate time. The second type – absolute PNT – uses information from external sources, such as celestial (stars and satellites) and magnetic navigation, image analysis (landmarks and terrain), and/or signals of interest like low radio frequencies or low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to determine a platform’s position. Relative and absolute PNT technologies can be used in combination to complement each other and increase the resilience of the resulting information. (Figure 1.) The MOSA path to Complementary PNT In order to speed the deployment and reduce the cost of new PNT capabilities, the DoD is seeking to implement the modular open systems approach (MOSA). MOSA is not a standard, but rather an acquisition and design policy that prioritizes the use of
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open standards-based technology. The benefits of MOSA include: › Seamless sharing across domains and machines › Rapid innovation and integration › Vendor independence › Life cycle supportability and reduced obsolescence › Minimized size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements According to the GAO, the Army and Navy have both developed MOSAbased PNT reference architectures, and the Air Force is beginning to develop its own. The Army is expected to propose a DoD-wide MOSA PNT reference architecture that will standardize common elements across the different services’ PNT reference architectures. The Army PNT Reference Architecture, as cited in “Defense Navigation Capabilities,” defines PNT Information with Assurance as “trustworthy PNT information that has been developed via access to one or more independent sources, depending upon PNT threat conditions.” The Army initiative will create PNT interface standards and develop reference PNT module hardware to enable rapid, agile, and affordable integration of new capabilities. The Air Force initiative is focused on non-GPS time dissemination to mobile platforms and aims to develop ways to enable all communications systems to distribute time from one platform to another. Key to both PNT reference architectures is the use of interface standards, with one example that of leveraging an open interface standard for the communication of PNT information such as the All-Source Positioning and Navigation (ASPN) standard developed by DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]. The use of a MOSA will bring many benefits to the effort to integrate alternative PNT technologies into platforms. In addition, a MOSA can increase competition and innovation while reducing the use and associated costs of proprietary systems. In fact, the use of a MOSA is now mandated by law: 2110 U.S.C. § 2446a requires that the DoD’s major defense acquisition programs be designed and developed, to the maximum extent practicable, using a MOSA www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 1 | Alternative PNT technologies for use in GPS-denied environment. Source: GAO analysis of DoD information (GAO-21-320SP).
that, among other things, employs a modular design that uses major system interfaces between a major system platform and a major system component or between major system components. Examples of open standards that satisfy the mandate for MOSA include the Army efforts VICTORY and CMOSS: VICTORY is the Vehicle Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability initiative that includes an open architecture that will allow platforms to accept future technologies without the need for significant redesign; CMOSS is the C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards, a MOSA that combines into a single system such capabilities as mission command, movement, maneuver, and fires. The GAO report suggests that, while DoD currently oversees the definition of PNT service reference architectures and interface standards, these architectures and standards “could be governed and sustained with consortia composed of both government and industry.” The report points to The Open Group’s Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium as an example of a government, industry, and academic alliance for developing an open technical standard used in military and commercial sensor systems. To help drive MOSA-based PNT activities, the GAO report calls on policymakers to consider making the open architecture initiative more permanent, and to provide appropriate funding. It concludes that, with appropriate resources, “DoD’s open architecture initiative has the potential to greatly reduce integration costs and time for all PNT technologies.” The GAO identifies a number of benefits resulting from open architecture PNT, including enabling DoD to keep ahead of evolving threats to PNT, because a MOSA would make it easier to field new alternative PNT technologies. MES Jason DeChiaro is a system architect at Curtiss-Wright whose responsibilities include supporting customers in architecting deployable VPX systems including CMOSS/SOSA compliant designs. Jason has more than 15 years of experience in the defense industry supporting the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, and U.S. Navy and the IC community. He received his electrical engineering degree, with distinction, from WPI. Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions • https://www.curtisswrightds.com/
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS November/December 2021
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SPECIAL REPORT
Preserving operational capabilities by hardening GPS By Justin Wymore
The modern battlespace has changed over the past decade, and the military use of GPS to deliver critical positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) information to warfighters faces challenges from adversaries’ threat systems. GPS continues to be relevant for the U.S. military and its allies, even when used in a GPS-denied environment. Existing and future military GPS solutions must especially consider those uses designed for handheld and ultrasmall applications where size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) are all key considerations.
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The military threat environment has changed, with the return of peer-state competitors as either adversaries or threat system providers to adversaries. Based on the challenges posed by peer threat systems to the precision absolute PNT [positioning, navigation, and timing] provided by GPS, the U.S. military and its allies have largely defined the problem as “GPS-denied,” and focused on development of non-GPS solutions. A detailed analysis, however, provides a different picture that lends itself to more straightforward solutions. Enabling precision strike capabilities GPS was a part of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) “Second Offset” strategy, and provides precision absolute PNT, as distinct from nonprecision or relative PNT (Figure 1). “Precision” PNT is usually defined within the defense industry as less than 10 meters for positioning applications and less than 1 millisecond for communications applications. “Absolute” PNT is defined as using the World Geodetic Survey 1984 (WGS84) reference frame and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Using the absolute reference frame, the Second Offset enabled low-cost precision weapons, an improved ability to deliver mass effects from dispersed forces, improved mission effectiveness, and reduced risk – all of which provided for the lowest total cost of operations. Several Third Offset technologies – autonomous combat platforms and hypersonic weaponry – rely upon absolute precision PNT to be effective. In addition, the corresponding Concept of Operations (CONOPS), Joint All Domain Operations (JADO), relies upon absolute precision PNT to achieve the core requirement of further dispersing forces for survivability while massing effects.
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The scope of the threat While several organizations have attempted to construct a framework through which to understand the problem, a model has in fact been proposed to clearly identify the challenge to absolute precision PNT (Figure 2). In this model, there are key characteristics that define the threats to GPS: threat level, threat cause, threat duration, and threat reach. In analyzing the challenge to assured PNT, it becomes clear that it is not a binary “permissive” or so-called Day without Space problem. Rather, there are combinations of the four key characteristics that result in conditions of GPS being available, GPS being unavailable locally or regionally, and GPS being
unavailable globally. For purposes of this framework, “short” is defined as a time or distance that can be dead-reckoned through with a high-stability clock or inertial capabilities, “local” is an area affecting a small force, and “regional” is a substantial portion of a military theater. Root causes The causes of a GPS-based PNT outage are jamming, spoofing, obstruction, or a systemic outage. Jamming is the deliberate or incidental impact of radio frequency (RF) energy on the ability of a GPS receiver to receive and decode the signals from a GPS constellation, while spoofing is a more sophisticated and deliberate effort to corrupt the data in the GPS signal. Obstruction is a passive cause – a physical object like a cave, building, multilayered foliage, or even a mountain shadow – that blocks the RF energy of the GPS signal and prevents sufficient energy from reaching the antenna for the receiver to acquire and track the signal. A systemic outage could theoretically be caused by corruption of the ground-control segment or by damaging a sufficient number of the satellites on orbit, which is unlikely to occur (see the RAND Corporation report, “Analyzing a More Resilient National Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Capability,” available at https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/ RR2970.html.)
Figure 1 | Precision absolute PNT enables key operational capabilities.
Figure 2 | Characterizing challenges for absolute precision PNT can enable solution identification. www.militaryembedded.com
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS November/December 2021
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SPECIAL REPORT Lining up solutions When thus logically decomposed, solutions present themselves to solve the distinct problems of each column and/ or group, as seen in Figure 3.
Tech for navigating GPS-denied environments Seen in Figure 3 is the threat framework from Figure 2 with possible technologies to address the threats presented on the left, which range from hardening GPS with antijamming and antispoofing
Military Systems 10 21 conditions. F.pdf 1 Figure 3 | Sealevel AffordableHAZPac solutions exist forEmbedded many of the GPS threat
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technologies to augmenting GPS with dead-reckoning in the form of inertials and/or high-stability clocks, other available satellite navigation systems, vision pedometry, terrain matching, celestial,
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and so on. Solutions exist today to counteract the most likely threats to GPS – those in columns 1-5. The first and most important mitigation is to key the receiver so that it can receive and process encrypted GPS signals – it is surprising how often military GPS is rendered ineffective due to not keying the crypto. To defend against peer competitor-grade threat systems, it is highly advisable to use modernized GPS equipment keyed with Military Code (M-Code) cryptography to enable the user equipment to receive the more powerful signal (~3dB nominal or 2x, depending on the satellite – GPS IIR-M, IIF, or III) and defend against more sophisticated spoofing. Modernized GPS receivers are available to support even handheld and ultrasmall applications where size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) are all key considerations. Above and beyond the antijamming capabilities of M-Code alone, BAE Systems has digital antijamming equipment available that can provide more than a 220-time (1 million-fold) increase in jamming immunity and an antispoofing technology that reliably detects the spoofer and eliminates it from the PNT solution. This equipment works with both legacy Selective Availability/Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) and Modernized user equipment and is available for airborne, shipborne, and ground vehicles. With the exception of obstructed signals such as caves – no GPS system can provide PNT in the absence of a GPS signal – GPSbased solutions exist today for columns 1-5. With the addition, where CONOPS dictate, of dead-reckoning systems (i.e., inertials and/or high-stability clocks), there is no GPS-denied environment while there exists a signal in space. Global outage; or, a Day Without Space In the highly unlikely event of a long global GPS outage (a corruption of the control segment or loss of multiple satellites), the U.S. is pursuing a next-generation modernized receiver capability that will process signals from allied GNSS systems. This move is intended to address the long-term global GPS outage possibility. In the final analysis, what many in the defense industry have been calling GPSdenied is really the Day Without Space www.militaryembedded.com
scenario. The second half of the binary choice mentioned previously (i.e., no signals at all) proves to really be the extreme end of a much more solvable spectrum. The military threat environment has evolved, and peer-state-level PNT threat systems threaten the U.S. military’s ability to conduct high-tempo combat operations in the place and manner of its choosing. However, the problem to be solved is not “GPS versus GPS-denied” with the challenge to invent, field, and operate an alternative to GPS. GPS continues to be the most ubiquitous, precise, and inexpensive source of PNT. Solutions exist today – even for the most SWaP-limited platforms – to harden and augment systems to defeat all but the most unlikely threat scenarios. MES Justin Wymore is the customer requirements manager for Weapons Position, Navigation, and Timing at BAE Systems, and a retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Readers may reach the author at justin.wymore@baesystems.com. BAE Systems https://www.baesystems.com/en/home
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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS November/December 2021
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SPECIAL REPORT
GPS-denied navigation expands the threshold for mission-critical drone use cases By Chad Sweet Conducting reconnaissance in inhospitable environments is nothing new for the U.S. military. Yet as foreign threats on the ground become both more sophisticated and more remote, the challenge of gathering intelligence in dangerous, hard-to-reach locations requires an approach that maximizes critical data collection while minimizing risk to live personnel.
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Tech for navigating GPS-denied environments
Autonomous drones deployed to complete mission critical tasks such as tunnel inspection must be equipped for GPS-denied and comms-denied navigation. ModalAI image.
The use of unmanned aerial systems (UASs) or drones to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) work in hazardous situations requires them to be lightweight, compliant with regulations, and maneuver reliably in dynamic GPS and GPS-denied environments. No GPS, no problem GPS has become the standard navigation feature for cars, cellphones and devices including UASs. Autonomous UASs use GPS to determine their latitude and longitude, along with a barometer (for altitude) and compass (for magnetic heading) to get an accurate orientation and position of where they are located in space. They also use this data to determine the location of other objects such as mission waypoints, geofences, and the home position. The strength of the GPS signal determines the accuracy of a drone’s navigation. GPS works best with an unobstructed view of the sky, but as the number of use cases grows, so do the different types of environments UASs must navigate in. Navigating indoors or in close proximity to buildings can be very challenging for UASs because the buildings block and reflect GPS satellites from communicating with the receiver. Even slightly degraded satellite strength can cause position accuracy to decrease rapidly. Degradation or loss of the GPS signal will decrease the accuracy of location data and possibly force the vehicle to terminate its navigation until a human intervenes or it crashes.
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Without a GPS signal, a UAS cannot orient itself in space and, therefore, cannot operate on its own. Because drones often must navigate in dynamic GPS to GPS-denied environments, they need a reliable backup navigation tool when GPS is not available. With visual inertial odometry (VIO), a UAS can operate autonomously without GPS. VIO uses visual and inertial data to measure distance traveled and position without the need to have a GPS signal. What makes VIO unique is that it can measure the aircraft’s position in 3D space and is the foundation of many other computer-vision functions such as obstacle avoidance, position control, and autonomous navigation in a GPS-denied environment. (Figure 1.) UASs that use both GPS and VIO can navigate precisely through dynamic environments and complete mission-critical tasks, including: › Indoor surveillance: Flying a small UAS (sUAS) inside tunnels, mines, bunkers, and other structures can be difficult or impossible due to signal interference that reduces or eliminates GPS reliability. › Search and rescue: Depending upon the terrain, dense tree cover and other natural obstructions, GPS signals can be weak to nonexistent due to obstacles that make connectivity a challenge. › Disaster zones: UASs are often deployed for emergency-relief efforts of their ability to access hard-to-reach places, yet debris and rubble can weaken GPS signals. › Critical infrastructure: Using UASs to survey buildings, bridges, and other potentially off-limits structures without deploying live personnel increases safety while offering the advantage of multiple viewpoints not always accessible by personnel alone. Smaller is better Because weight is gravity’s nemesis, a UAS has to be as lightweight as possible, especially if it’s used in confined spaces. One way to optimize weight and flight is to use an autopilot with multiple integrated components on its main printed circuit board (PCB). www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 1 | Pilot view of an autonomous sUAS livestream as it maps and navigates in a GPSdenied environment with VIO. ModalAI image.
PCBs are now smaller and smarter than ever. Traditionally, UAS developers would need to use six or seven different boards to achieve autonomy, AI, and flight. However, with new technology and innovation, some autopilots on the market now condense all that computing power into one single-board solution. This single-package solution enables a smaller, lighter aerial vehicle, ideal for navigating in hazardous situations. A single PCB can also reduce cabling and cost while increasing reliability since there are fewer components. Also, consider the ease of development when working with an integrated PCB; with software already on board, they are plug-and-play right out of the box. PCBs built on open-source platforms come with reliable software development kits (SDKs) that enable flexible and efficient designs and builds plus feature ports for optional add-ons. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) spearheaded what it calls the “Blue UAS Project,” which developed trusted sUASs for the DoD and federal government partners. This effort built on the U.S. Army’s sUAS program of record, Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR), to promulgate inexpensive, rucksackportable, vertical takeoff and landing sUAS. Blue sUAS systems share the capabilities of the SRR air vehicles, according to information from the DIU, but integrate a vendorprovided ground control system. The Blue UAS Framework program meets the DoD’s requirements to deliver sUAS components that achieve greater levels of fielded autonomy within DoD sUAS programs; a commonality among sUAS components, which reduces development time and costs; and the ability to stay ahead of the DoD’s latest requirements by testing future-forward technologies on trusted platforms. One such example of an integrated, plug-and-play solution is VOXL Flight from ModalAI. It fuses a companion computer with a PX4 flight controller on one PCB that enables GPS-denied flight. Its autopilots seamlessly switch from GPS to VIO, ensuring precise flight even in dynamic environments. ModalAI has worked with the DIU since 2018. (Figure 2.) Making drones smarter with AI Pairing the real-time learning of artificial intelligence (AI) with the exploratory abilities of autonomous drones makes the “smart” UAS a critical component of 21st-century military operations. AI adds advanced perception capabilities to drones, supplying crucial data such as object tracking and classification, area mapping, and real-time operational feedback to the pilot. This raw data collection offers forward-looking benefits, enabling command center personnel to learn from the captured images and feedback to formulate educated theories applicable to future missions.
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS November/December 2021
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DATA-BUS MIL-STD-1553 TRANSFORMERS Figure 2 | Traditional small UASs require multiple PCBs to achieve autonomous navigation and computing. Advanced Blue UAS craft like the VOXL Flight condense the computing power of six PCBs into a single, lighter board. ModalAI image.
Building on GPS-denied navigation for comms-denied navigation When an sUAS is navigating in a GPS-denied environment like a tunnel, it can also lose connection with its radio link, which can cut off real-time communication to its pilot. In these communications-denied (comms-denied) scenarios, the vehicle must be able to complete its mission and analyze data independently of the pilot. This is where onboard computer vision and AI take over. AI-enabled UASs further benefit from intelligent self-navigation and object avoidance/ detection, essential in comms and GPS-denied environments. The ability to process data onboard in real time enables the drone to make decisions independent of its pilot. An example: An sUAS is sent on a reconnaissance mission to scout for enemy personnel in a tunnel and loses radio link connection. In that case, it can still rely on VIO to navigate and onboard AI to map and explore the territory. Computer vision, machine learning, and depth/image sensors enable the UAS to autonomously scan and identify objects or people that could pose a threat. Once a threat is detected, the vehicle is programmed to return to the pilot, where it can relay its findings. Such autonomy enables a wide variety of use cases for military and enterprise applications, including structural and underground inspections, terrain scanning, security monitoring, detecting danger in hostile environments, and more. Flying a UAS in hostile or dense indoor environments requires precise flying solutions to navigate between GPS-enabled and GPS-denied environments. GPS-denied autonomous craft can also operate outside traditional enemy strategies of jamming or manipulating GPS signals. Equipping the craft with GPS and VIO navigational tools combined with intelligent AI and computer-vision solutions in GPS-denied and comms-denied environments expands the horizons for these sUASs. MES Chad Sweet is the CEO and co-founder of ModalAI. Chad has more than 23 years of experience in robotics, computer vision, and cellular communications. ModalAI develops small unmanned, drone, and robotics autonomous computer vision, flight-control, and communications systems that operate over 4G and 5G cellular networks.
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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS November/December 2021
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MIL TECH TRENDS
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Powering high-performance, ultrareliable RF systems in military electronics By Ted Prema The Military radio frequency (RF) systems must be designed to withstand the rigors of the often-harsh environments in which they will be used, while at the same time achieving extremely high performance for mission-critical applications. Low-smoke, zero-halogen, and phase-stable cable assemblies for these RF systems fulfill these high-reliability needs.
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Radio frequency (RF) systems are used to power vital military electronics applications such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems; communications systems; and electronic warfare (EW) suites. These systems must be extremely reliable and continually offer high performance – in very demanding, confined, and variable environments on the ground, in the air, and at sea. Each of these applications has unique requirements, driving development of custom RF interconnect solutions to address specific challenges. While safety comes first in the design of any of these complex military RF systems, performance must also be flawless. For example, EW systems perform numerous mission-critical functions, including defense against attacks and providing enhanced situational awareness. These systems use RF signals to locate and identify potential threats, landscape features, and more, and include ground-based radar, antimissile defense, guidance systems, and similar applications. Each of these applications depends entirely on continuous real-time transmission of data with high accuracy. Since these systems often operate under severe environmental conditions, two of the most important considerations in choosing optimal RF interconnect solutions include the use of low-smoke, zero-halogen cable and connectors and the use of assemblies optimized for high phase stability even at high temperature.
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Figure 1 | The military was one of the initial adopters of low-smoke, zero-halogen safety standards for RF cabling in confined spaces, such as on a submarine. In this 2019 photo, the crew of the USS Rhode Island (SSBN 740) ballistic-missile submarine returns to its home port at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Bryan Tomforde.
why military users were one of the first adopters of low-smoke, zero-halogen (LSZH) standards. (Figure 1.) The RF systems that perform critical operations in these environments must be designed to work as safely as possible within the application constraints. Under fire, a low-smoke cable (also known as limited-smoke cable) emits less optically dense smoke at a slower rate than a standard cable, enabling occupants to exit the hazardous area and protecting the safety of firefighting operations.
Optimizing for phase stability even at temperature Fires are one of the most serious dangers in confined spaces such as in military aircraft, tanks, ships, and submarines. Fire can quickly fill an area with smoke, obscure visibility, and drastically impede safe evacuation. Toxic gases and the lack of breathable air add to the danger. If a fire occurs in this type of confined space, it is crucial that the wiring and cables powering the RF systems do not give off toxic or optically dense gases when subjected to the high temperatures of the fire. Low-smoke, zero-halogen cable assemblies are therefore essential for passenger safety in spaces where air exchange is minimal. This is especially true in areas where densely packed cables are installed in proximity to humans or sensitive electronic equipment, which is www.militaryembedded.com
Halogens like chlorine, fluorine, and bromine are often used as effective fire retardants in wire and cables, enabling a cable to pass an industry flame test. However, halogens emit toxic gases when burning, so zero-halogen cables are another important requirement for military electronics systems. Halogen-free materials also produce clearer, whiter smoke for better visibility and do not emit halogen’s toxic off-gases. Environmental challenges and phase stability Phase is a key parameter for detection and measurement in many military RF systems such as radar, missile defense, EW, and many other systems that rely on continuous transmission and reception of RF signals with high accuracy and consistent speeds, regardless of temperature. The phase behavior of coaxial cable assemblies can adversely affect system performance when phase tracking is required and, as a result, phase must be extremely stable in the components within those RF systems. For example, the electronically steered antennas used in many military RF applications use antennas with an array of radiating elements to steer antenna beams rather than physically moving an antenna. Beam-steering for transmission or reception is performed by adjusting the phase of the individual antenna elements in the array. The antenna array elements are each fed by high-frequency transmission lines; the accuracy of the signal phase presented to each array element depends on the phase accuracy and stability of the cable assemblies. Military electronics systems are exposed to extreme and highly variable environmental conditions, such as corrosive salt spray in the ocean or high temperatures in the desert. For effective performance, the RF signals within those systems should travel through any coaxial cables with minimal delays and loss regardless of these environmental factors. As coaxial cables are subjected to cold and hot temperature extremes, their
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phase characteristics change as a function of temperature, with changes in the phase tracking or matching between cables. Even a small phase-tracking error between cables used in a phase-critical application, such as for a phased-array antenna, can adversely affect antenna performance. Times Microwave offers PhaseTrack Low Smoke (PTLS) cable assemblies designed to meet the low-smoke, zero-halogen, and phase stability requirements of highperformance military electronics applications. The coaxial cable features a proprietary foam polyethylene blended dielectric called TF5. This innovative material provides exceptional phase stability with temperature performance to +85 °C and does not suffer the abrupt shift in phase that occurs with solid or tape-wrapped PTFE [polytetrafluoroethylene]-based coaxial cables. It eliminates the phenomenon known as the PTFE knee, in which the PTFE (also known as Teflon) undergoes a structural transition at approximately 18 °C that actually alters the dielectric constant of the
Figure 2 | Cable assemblies used in mission-critical military applications must exhibit low loss, remain flexible, and emit low/no smoke in a fire emergency. Times Microwave image.
material and substantially changes the delay of the transmitted signal. This nonlinear phenomenon is a property of the molecular structure of the PTFE material and cannot be eliminated regardless of advancements in dielectric manufacturing technology. Offered as a complete assembly, the PTLS family of products are available in cable diameters from 0.2 to 0.6 inches, address all frequencies ranging from HF through K-band, and include an optimized version for minimum loss at Ku-band frequencies. The cables use a proven low-/zero-smoke, zero-halogen jacket. (Figure 2.)
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To meet the demands of a variety of systems, these assemblies can also be supplied with any type of industry-standard RF connector or contact interface and be terminated with low-passive-intermodulation (low-PIM) 7-16, 4.3-10, or Type N designs and tested to an assured maximum PIM level -160 dBc. MES Ted Prema is Director, Aerospace Programs at Times Microwave Systems. Ted has been part of Times Microwave for over 40 years. He earned an MBA from the University of New Haven (Conn.) and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Times Microwave Systems https://www.timesmicrowave.com
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Powering SpaceVPX systems – How to implement efficient standards-compliant solutions faster By Tim Meade SpaceVPX undertakes a lot to deliver a lot: With so many profiles and configurations available, the devil is in the details when it comes to producing efficient, standards-compliant, power solutions. Supplying and muxing manifold power rails to payload slots through SpaceUM [utility module] is especially challenging due to the myriad of profile choices available and is further complicated in the smaller 3U form factor. The good news is that new, efficient space-grade power-conversion and control technology is making SpaceVPX/UM standards-compliant power supplies and power distribution more manageable, even in the small 3U form factor. Spacecraft have generationally been typified by architectures built around proprietary systems and design approaches. While serving the needs of the individual program, the custom nature of proprietary implementations tends to be inefficient, costly, and risk-prone. Further, the
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inherently narrow focus of custom implementations precludes enablement of modularity, interoperability, and upgradability for future systems. Recognizing the limitations associated with perpetuating custom systems and architectures, many cross-industry consortia and standards groups have come together to develop and promote open system standards like OpenVPX (VITA 65.x), SpaceVPX (VITA 78.0), and streamlined versions such as SpaceVPX-Lite (VITA 78.1). To further
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they also build in motivation for commercial solutions providers to innovate and provide relevant and competitive technologies. Let’s take SpaceVPX (VITA 78.0) as a contextual example for open modular systems of particular interest to the space community: What are the power-supply, distribution, and system-management challenges facing developers? Moreover, how is new purpose-built technology speeding the design of systems, with less risk, while adding greater functionality and capability?
Recognizing the limitations associated with perpetuating custom systems and architectures, many cross-industry consortia and standards groups have come together to develop and promote open system standards like OpenVPX (VITA 65.x), SpaceVPX (VITA 78.0), and streamrefine and encourage standards adoption, groups including The Open Group’s Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA) and Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE), along with the Space Power Consortium (SPC), now work collaboratively to establish interoperable reference-design architectures and promote the use of modular and open system frameworks. Through increased adoption and deployment of standards-based systems, programs benefit from reduced schedules, lower costs, and less risk by reusing proven technology. Further, such approaches are pathways to upward scalability and interoperability and
Figure 1 | Pictured is a SpaceVPX system high-level block diagram. www.militaryembedded.com
lined versions such as SpaceVPX-Lite (VITA 78.1). SpaceVPX system: a bird’s eye view Beginning with the OpenVPX (VITA 65.0) standard, the SpaceVPX approach leverages redundancy and cross-strapping with single point-point connections to derive a highly fault-tolerant, high-performance computing platform for space applications. While single-point failure immunity is especially attractive for space missions, its implementation quickly becomes complex and componentintensive, especially when the system is architected to maximize availability of the manifold resources and capability defined by the standard. For perspective, Figure 1 is a high-level diagram of the generalized SpaceVPX architecture interfaced to the Space Power Consortium’s Satellite Power Architecture (which is beyond the scope of this article – learn more at https://spacepower.org/).
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SpaceVPX platforms are principally comprised of six distinct elements. These elements are the chassis, the backplane, two independent power supplies, two independent system controllers (chassis managers), SpaceUM [utility module] selection and distribution hub, and two 16-payload cards. The SpaceVPX chassis may be implemented in a 6U or smaller 3U form factor with sufficient slotting to accommodate the plug-in elements in a redundant fashion. SpaceVPX system power supply units (PSUs) receive external power from the satellite power bus or other specific architecture-defined voltage domain. Each power supply is responsible for generating as many as seven voltage rails: +12V/VS1, +12V/AUX, +3.3V/VS2, +3.3V/AUX, +5V/VS3, -12V/AUX, and VBAT. The SpaceUM receives all voltage rails, selects between primary or redundant supplies, and distributes the power independently to each payload slot per the system configuration and controller mandate. While this may appear straightforward, technology capable of performing this “power cross-point switching” is limited for space applications. Similar to the SpaceVPX power supply distribution architecture, the system controller sources all management and communication signals across the SpaceVPX chassis via the SpaceUM entity. While power-distribution responsibilities are in themselves a challenge, the point-topoint fan out and buffering of system-management signals – including I2C-based intelligent platform management interface (IPMI), clocks, resets, and selection controls – are left to the SpaceUM module to manage and distribute. This approach appears logical and even tidy, but levies a high demand on the SpaceUM and requires size, weight, and power (SWaP)-optimized components to be successful.
With expanded payload slot card configurations, distributing power and control signals imposes increased complexity and challenges associated with implementing a compatible backplane. This burden is further complicated by the plethora of slot profiles available in the VITA 78.0 standard. The number of permutations makes it difficult for suppliers to efficiently and confidently invest in the development of standard off-theshelf solutions to support SpaceVPX applications. This is where organizations like SOSA are adding extra value by promoting a narrowed set of reference architectures, thereby reducing and simplifying the number of recommended permutations and associated requirements needed to implement a VPX-compliant system. SpaceVPX power supply As the lifeblood of the SpaceVPX platform, the power supply is tasked with converting input power from external voltage source(s) and efficiently delivering
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multiple voltage rails that may have hundreds of watts of power. While military applications have access to a wide range of efficient, high-power technologies, the space environment is currently more limited. Figure 2 depicts a high-level block diagram for a full-featured, nonSOSA aligned SpaceVPX power supply. Figure 2’s main functional blocks include input power supply conditioning in the form of EMI [electromagnetic interference] filtering and transient protection that provide a clean input for the power conversion and management electronics local to the SpaceVPX PSU. The input supply feeds as many as six isolated DC/ DC converters to generate the output voltage rails and a local 3.3V voltage domain to power internal electronics elements – specifically, the microcontroller that manages the output regulators plus reporting status and telemetry to the SpaceVPX system controller. Consider packing all this functionality into a 3U form factor. It is generally accepted that a 160 mm by 100 mm 3U form factor provides approximately 11,500 mm2 of useable area. Providing an allowance of 1,500 mm2 for the input power conditioning, local 3.3 V regulation and microcontroller leaves 10,000 mm2 of available area to implement the six isolated power supplies to the SpaceVPX system. Thus, to achieve 500 W of power in a 10,000 mm2 area requires an average 50 mW/mm2 power density. A survey of space-assured isolated converters shows best-in-class power density of approx. 40 mW/mm2, which is insufficient to practically power all six rails described in Figure 2. Additionally, the average efficiency of space-based isolated converters is 85%, which translates to a thermal power dissipation of 75 W for a 500 W supply, a significant amount of heat to dissipate. Consequently, a number of trade-offs would be necessary to create a fullfeatured SpaceVPX power supply. These trade-offs may have traditionally required reducing the power requirements to something more manageable (like 300 W or less), reducing the number www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 2 | Pictured is a 500 W SpaceVPX power supply high-level block diagram.
Figure 3 | Pictured is a 500 W SpaceVPX power supply high-level block diagram.
of power rails, or using multistage conversion with a combination of isolated and nonisolated voltage conversion/regulation. Recognizing these challenges, SOSA and other industry working groups are seeking to refine the SpaceVPX requirements, simplifying its implementation and facilitating configurations that are more aligned to the availability of space capable technologies. Figure 3 depicts a 300W SOSA aligned SpaceVPX power supply, which uses this updated design approach. By employing only two power supply outputs and lower overall total power, the SOSA aligned configuration lends itself to a simpler, SWaP- and cost-friendly implementation that can be built with existing or near-term space grade components. As shown in Figure 3, a small-form-factor, low-power microcontroller and isolated gallium nitride (GaN) converter is able to deliver 75 W of power, at >91% efficiency, in a 2,400 mm2 footprint. The high efficiency and reduced size of these converters makes SpaceVPX power solutions more efficient, easier to design, and cool. For scalability, each converter can be paralleled with a second device to double output power. Additional design maneuverability will soon be possible, as new 3.3 V and 12 V GaN converters become available that have even higher efficiencies and power densities.
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MIL TECH TRENDS The improved efficiency and power density of the GaN converter topology greatly reduces the challenges associated with heat generation compared with traditional space-borne solutions and is small enough to fit within the 3U SpaceVPX power-supply profile. Taken together, these radiation-hardened building blocks are enabling practical SOSA aligned SpaceVPX power-supply solutions to be quickly produced. Having solved and met the power conversion requirements, the next functional SpaceVPX block to be addressed is the SpaceUM. SpaceUM power distribution and system management fan out Let’s go back to Figure 1: The SpaceUM receives the power-supply rails and systemmanagement signals, then assumes the responsibility of selecting/distributing each power-supply rail to all payload slots in addition to fanning out and buffering the system-management signals. In principle, this is a logical approach; but in practice it is not so simple, given the limited availability of power-switching electronics and signal-routing solutions available to space engineers. Figure 4 depicts a conceptual SpaceUM block diagram with 12 V/VS1 switching rails and system-management signal fan-out. The diagram references components that are space-capable and therefore provides a pathway to space-borne VPX applications. There are several notable items to recognize in the SpaceUM diagram. First, the A_VS1 and B_VS1 PSU inputs are put together in a premuxed configuration. Premuxing the power supplies provides improved size, weight, and cost advantage versus repeatedly power-muxing and power-switching VS1 for each payload slot. The blue-colored boxes describe the salient attributes associated at the power-muxing stage in the architecture. The attribute summary within the blue boxes includes an area estimate, current rating, effective channel impedance, and other significant features and functions provided by the smart power-switch controller (SPSC) device. (Figure 5.) The SPSC is a current-class agnostic eFuse controller with integrated fault detection, isolation and recovery (FDIR) capability. The device supports inrush current limiting and ideal diode control FET (with one-way current), which is essential for multiplexing between primary and redundant power supplies. Additionally, through the SPSC’s power management bus (PMBus) interface, the local host controller can
Figure 4 | Pictured is a SpaceVPX SpaceUM +12 V/VS1 (20 A/240 W) power and systemmanagement distribution conceptual block diagram.
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Military power supplies perform system-management functions including configuration, control, and gathering of housekeeping data over a simple two-wire I2C serial bus – indicated by the blue bidirectional bus line in the diagram. While the SPSC is a common entity in Figure 4’s blue and green boxes, the number and size of the PowerFETs are different based on where they reside in the architecture and the current rating required. As mentioned earlier, the power-supply premuxing enables significant size and area reduction at the payload-switching stage. The final block in the Figure 4 diagram worth noting is the purple block representing the SpaceUM system-management hub, which buffers and fans out the signals from the SpaceVPX system controller to all payload slots in pointto-point fashion and controls which PSU supplies power to each payload. Systemmanagement signals flowing through the SpaceUM include IPMI communication bus, clocks, resets, and generalpurpose signals. Because the full complement of signals must be singularly fanned out to each payload, the number of I/Os required can quickly outgrow the available resources of a typical small microcontroller. In such cases, an FPGA [field-programmable gate array] or multiple discreet buffering/ muxing circuits are used. In the conceptual diagram shown in Figure 3, an Arm M0+ microcontroller or radiation-tolerant FPGA are suggested because of their low power, flexible nature, and small size. The final item to note is the PMBus interface between the SpaceUM host controller and each SPSC. Unlike commercial devices employing PMBus, the SPSCs provide a redundant, nonblocking I2C interface providing redundant PMBus communication between two host controllers, thereby facilitating fault-tolerant objectives that are built into the SpaceVPX standard. Further, since I2C is a multidrop serial bus, the entire interface between the host controller and all power switches is easily implemented with just two pins. www.militaryembedded.com
Tim Meade serves as a systems design engineer for the CAES Space Systems Division where he is architecting spacequalified NAND flash, multi-gigabit-per-second interconnect, power management, and eFuse controller solutions. He has been with the company for more than 20 years. Tim earned a BS in electrical engineering at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and an MBA in technology management. Readers may email the author at Tim.L.Meade@CAES.com with any questions, including a request for native graphics and supporting application/design details identified in this article. CAES https://caes.com/
Figure 5 | Smart power switch controllers (SPSCs) integrate fast shortcircuit protection, fault detection and recovery, and integrated voltage-current conversion in a single reusable device.
Next stop, VITA 78.0 … The space community is abuzz with interest for the VITA 78.0 SpaceVPX standard. The idea of a compact instrument for high-performance space computing and sensor networking with exceptional fault tolerance and scalable modularity is compelling. Implementing the standard is becoming much easier as new, purpose-built space-grade components become available that are capable of meeting all the requirements of a fullfeatured SpaceVPX platform. To further lighten the design load, industry groups like SOSA have made great strides toward narrowing the scope and configuration permutations derived from VITA 78.0, thereby providing a roadmap for successfully implementing a SpaceVPX-compliant platform in the near term. With the increased adoption of SpaceVPX, industry solutions providers are developing technology that directly services the needs of SpaceVPX platforms by reducing their footprint, increasing their efficiency, expanding their capabilities, and purpose-building them for space missions. MES www.militaryembedded.com
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Making power ICs more affordable By Anton Quiroz To enable the space systems of the future, and to make space more accessible, first the industry must solve the problems with rad-hard semiconductors. There are a number of major cost drivers for spacegrade power integrated circuits (ICs) that need to be addressed. Radiation-hardened integrated circuits (ICs) needed for space applications are large, expensive, and lag state-of-the-art performance by more than a decade. The factors driving these realities include the extensive testing required for space-grade parts, a dwindling supply of legacy devices, the high cost of designing rad-hard integrated circuits, and the high cost of hermetic ceramic packaging. How to make power rad-hard ICs more affordable? I remember my first years working in business development for a high-reliability product line developing ICs for space applications. As I was familiarizing myself with the product portfolio and customers, I noticed significant sales coming from what I considered to be “legacy” products. Many of these parts – designed back in the 1980s and
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1990s – were still being designed into new systems. Moreover, power ICs that normally went for about $2 in volume for commercial applications would sell for over $2,000 in the rad-hard space. High cost of testing Most radiation-hardened integrated circuits are tested and qualified per MIL-STD-883 and MIL-PRF-38535. These are common standards that have been utilized by the high-reliability industry for more than 20 years. While these standards helped the government and suppliers avoid managing sometimes hundreds of custom specs for the same product, the pricing still did remain high compared to the equivalent commercial functions due to the extensive testing and screening required on the space-grade products. Testing costs very often swamped the material costs. Some IC testing can run hundreds of dollars on ICs that cost less than one dollar to manufacture. This testing versus manufacturing cost disparity is even more pronounced with plastic devices. This extra testing is supposed to increase the reliability of the components. The high-reliability industry has been evaluating more reliable commercial flows such as automotive (AEC-Q100) and enhanced plastic (V62), which leverage the process monitors that make these commercial products more reliable without the expensive 100% screening normally required for space-grade product. Due to the lack of state-of-art electronics for space applications, many customers resort to upscreening commercial devices. Upscreening – which involves testing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts to see if they conform to military specifications – often costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and must be done for every new lot of devices. There is also no guarantee that the parts will work; moreover, the upscreening process itself can lead to reliability issues such as latent defects. With power devices, finding commercial ICs that are “rad-hard by serendipity” and suitable for upscreening is even more difficult. This situation arises because power ICs are subjected to higher voltages and are susceptible to catastrophic single-event-effects caused by heavy ions in space and to the
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degradation caused by total ionizing dose (TID) effects. Efforts are underway to standardize a space plastic flow as part of MILPRF-38535 specification. The “Class P” standard is under consideration by government agencies and industrial partners. While this standard is a step in the right direction, it does plan to incorporate some expensive screening steps such as 100% burn-in, 100% x-ray, and serialized data logs: all of these manually done, expensive processes. Dwindling supply Many of the older space-grade components are on die bank, which means they can no longer be manufactured and supply is therefore limited. Supply limitations normally happen when a waferfabrication facility shuts down a process due to lack of business viability or for upgrade purposes. Sometimes the processes get transferred to a new fabrication facility, but more often than not the process is obsoleted all together. Even in cases where processes get transferred to new facilities, that move can lead to an IC that is electrically equivalent but with vastly different radiation performance. Dwindling supply of these older components means that production programs are at risk and the price of components will continue to increase. High cost of hermetic ceramic packaging Traditionally, space-grade components are packaged in hermetic ceramic packages. Hermetic packages protect the die against moisture but are often 100 times more expensive than plastic packages and also negatively affect the components’ performance. Customers, including government customers, are spending tens of millions of dollars developing digital application-specific ICs (ASICs) in smaller, higher-performing process nodes but are using suboptimal packages. These ceramic packages introduce large amounts of resistance and inductance with their longer leads and/or large redistribution layers. For rad-hard power ICs, the performance degradation introduced by these packages is even more apparent. www.militaryembedded.com
For state-of-the art components, commercial manufacturers ditched traditional packages years ago, opting for wafer chip scale packaging (WCSP). Wafer chip scale enables near-ideal die-to-board connection through a redistribution of layers and wafer bumps. WCSP reduces parasitic resistance and inductance that negatively affect the efficiency and performance of power ICs. Unfortunately, because of the disparity between the thermal coefficient of the die compared to the boards used for flight, WCSP is currently not accepted for spaceflight applications. The high amounts of thermal cycles necessary to qualify a space-grade device leads to solder-joint reliability with WCSP. In order to drive the cost down and performance up, newer packaging techniques must be explored for space applications. There are efforts ongoing with various suppliers to improve packaging, but they are not yet qualified. Moving forward, some new suppliers have decided to only release space-grade parts in plastic – a good trend to see more widely adopted among satellite and spacecraft developers, especially those in the New Space market. High cost of rad-hard IC design It costs millions of dollars to design and productize even a so-called simple IC. If it needs to be rad-hard, it will be at least three times more expensive. IC design requires highly specialized, very expensive, computer-aided design (CAD) tools, which use components and models developed by the fabrication site and are specific to the process node. ICs sometimes have millions of transistors spread through hundreds of schematics and subsystems. The CAD tools, as well as proper verification, are the main reason complicated ICs have even a remote chance of first-pass success. The issue is that rad-hard design breaks these tools. The unique layouts and modification required for rad-hard performance causes these tools to spit out thousands of design-rule violations. Inside these thousands of design-rule violations can lurk something critical, like a short-circuit or a bad connection. In addition to design-rule checkers not working properly, the layout-versus-schematic checks that ensure the components are hooked up correctly also do not function due to rad-hard modification. Without proper working tools, chances of success are 02. This means that radhard IC designers first have to invest many years and millions of dollars to work with the fabrications facilities to modify these tools to work properly for rad-hard design. Using the proprietary TalRad [Transistor-Adjusted-Layout for Radiation] process, Apogee Semiconductor is developing a rad-hard hybrid analog/digital PWM [pulse-width modulation] controller to drive GaN [gallium nitride] and silicon FETs [field-effect transistors] that rival commercial state-of-art performance. This work is partially funded by NASA and is being developed in collaboration with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Even while lowering the design and packaging cost, test costs still dominate the recurring cost of integrated circuits. This is where the industry has to think about using the process monitors utilized by automotive process flows and trim the screening flows to optimize the cost and reliability. The good news is that suppliers are pushing to reduce the cost of rad-hard components, making them more accessible for New Space customers. MES Anton Quiroz, CEO of Apogee Semiconductor, has more than 16 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and over a decade in the aerospace and defense industry. Anton has held various management positions at Cobham Advanced Electronics Solutions and at Texas Instruments. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Apogee Semiconductor • https://apogeesemi.com/
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Helping the U.S. Navy convert ocean waves into perpetual power By Bill Schmitz
The ability to harness ocean-wave energy is a rapidly evolving field that the U.S. Navy is actively exploring to expand its maritime C4ISR [command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] capabilities. Historically, the biggest technological hurdle to capturing energy from ocean waves has been how to acquire, store, and efficiently convert so-called “dirty energy” into a usable regulated current across a spectrum of unpredictable operating conditions – from hurricanes to calm seas.
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Columbia Power Technologies, Inc. (C-Power), the U.S. Navy, and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are conducting a demonstration of C-Power’s new SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system (AOPS), which provides localized power generation and data services for underwater vehicles and open-ocean environmental sensors. NAVFAC, a U.S. Navy system command, is overseeing the trials at its Wave Energy Test Site in Hawaii. NAVSEA [U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command] is also involved through the Coastal Trident 2021 program, which is measuring SeaRAY’s capabilities to provide a virtual fence in the water via intrusion detection and seafloor change monitoring – a first for a wave-energy-based system. The SeaRAY also will transmit what happens in the ocean to the cloud using remote, real-time data communications. (Figure 1.) The U.S. Navy has long sought the means to expand its maritime defense capabilities by harnessing ocean waves and converting that power into usable energy. Prevailing solutions encountered the same problem: How to efficiently convert pulsed-ocean-wave power into a varying DC bus while still producing a constant current at varying power levels. This longstanding design challenge led to a partnership between the Navy, DOE, and Columbia Power Technologies (C-Power), a manufacturer of autonomous offshore power and data systems. C-Power’s part of the project is development of an innovative wave-capture technology that delivers reliable, renewable, cost-effective energy generation and storage while simultaneously supporting real-time data and communication services for offshore applications. With sea trials underway, the expectation is for a demonstration of capabilities that has never been achieved before: the use of an in situ offshore power
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Figure 1 | The SeaRAY offshore power system enables localized power-generation and data services for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and ocean-dwelling environmental sensors.
source for underwater sensors, surveillance systems, and rechargeable, submersible autonomous vehicles; and a data conduit that enables offshore communications by bringing the cloud to the sea. Harvesting ocean power on the kilowatt scale Founded in 2005 with technology developed at Oregon State University, C-Power has worked with the U.S. military for 10 years across a variety of ocean-energy programs. These include a DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] project: the Tactical Undersea Network Architectures (TUNA) program, an undersea optical-fiber backbone that’s designed to restore communications for U.S. forces when traditional tactical networks are knocked offline. C-Power’s Wave Energy Buoy System (WEBS) was designed to provide remote, kilowatt-scale power for the network. The WEBS project led C-Power to develop its first autonomous offshore power system (AOPS). These systems unlock the potential of local power generation for operating remote underwater vehicles, open-ocean data-collection sensors, and many forms of operating equipment. Previously, power for these applications was provided via an onboard battery that had to be collected and recharged every few months, or through a topside vessel. By localizing energy generation using ocean waves, C-Power realized two things. First, it could replace a people-, carbon-, and capital-intensive alternative in which power was delivered through crewed assets. Second, C-Power could enable new applications not possible today by supplying an autonomous, renewable, ocean-borne power source capable of doubling as a communications conduit. C-Power also realized power is only half the victory. Bidirectional, real-time, or nearreal-time data communications is an absolute requirement in nearly all use cases. Collectively, this is what led to the development of today’s AOPS, which include the SeaRAY wave-energy system. The SeaRAY is scalable from 50 W to 20 kW of generation capacity, serving a variety of applications. (Figure 2.) The SeaRAY sea trials began in fall 2021 with NAVFAC in Hawaii. C-Power is also working with NAVSEA, which runs Coastal Trident 2021 – the annual port and maritime security capabilities demonstration. By enabling functions such as intrusion detection and underwater mine countermeasures, the SeaRAY is demonstrating for Coastal Trident the ability of an AOPS network to provide an always-on virtual fence that will operate safely and cost-effectively. As a force multiplier, it will extend the Navy’s ISR capabilities exponentially. The demonstration is also showcasing the SeaRAY platform’s ability to support datacommunications services. Today’s battery-powered marine data-gathering systems www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 2 | Now in trials, the SeaRAY wave-energy system aims to provide an always-on scalable power generator for a variety of applications.
are limited in the breadth and frequency of data communications they can support and often require manual retrieval of data. In contrast, the SeaRAY uses a cellular network to pass data in real time to the cloud, which allows more and richer data to be transmitted more often. C-Power is also working with Viasat to bring advanced, resilient satelliteenabled data-communications capabilities to the SeaRAY in 2022. Overcoming the power-conversion problem C-Power’s near-term focus is on systems that generate 10 W to 1 MW from ocean waves. On the lower end of the power spectrum, the C-Power power-conversion subsystem had to be made smaller than ever before, even as it tackled the task of efficiently converting a wide range of inconsistent ocean waves into energy. Working closely with Vicor Corporation, C-Power overcame one of the most significant challenges for SeaRAY, which is the power conversion subsystem’s extraordinary 30:1 input range. Given the unpredictable nature of ocean waves, this required a subsystem capable of converting power with high efficiency and the ability to accept external control signals in order to match precise power conversion needs in real time. High-efficiency Vicor power modules were used to maintain reliable SeaRay AOPS operation even in calm waters where onboard power must be conserved to ensure system uptime. The fixed-ratio DC-DC bus converters and high-density regulator modules with complex multistage discrete converters
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Military power supplies
efficiently convert wave energy and provide controlled power. Additionally, the power-conversion topologies used in the Vicor modules helped to minimize electromagnetic interference and noise onboard the AOPS that could otherwise compromise sensor-measurement accuracy. Stable, wide-input DC-DC converters meant that the SeaRAY converted pulsed ocean wave power into a varying DC bus while still producing a constant current at various power levels. The regulator module architecture enabled stable, constant current from the highly variable power pulses coming from the SeaRAY’s onboard generator, despite turbulent and unpredictable oceanwave patterns. This combination enabled C-Power to convert a constantly fluctuating power profile into a cost-effective, practical solution, and then condition that power and turn it into usable energy for a wide range of mobile and static assets. The result: C-Power increased the SeaRAY’s power conversion efficiency from about 50% to as high as 94%. Using Vicor’s high-density power module subsystem, C-Power is able to maintain reliable SeaRay AOPS operation even in calm waters with fewer and smaller waves – and where onboard power must be conserved to ensure system uptime. The proprietary power-conversion topologies used in the modules also helped to minimize electromagnetic interference and noise onboard the AOPS that could otherwise compromise the accuracy of the sensor measurements. In enabling autonomy and offshore power in smaller applications, C-Power’s autonomous offshore power systems are helping the Navy move away from a manned operational model by removing sailors from the so-called 3D jobs – dull, dirty, and dangerous. In addition, the demonstrations in Hawaii will show that reliable,
efficient, renewable, and autonomous energy delivery on the open ocean will be a huge step up for national defense, homeland security, and the broader marine economy. MES Bill Schmitz, president of Vicor Northwest Power, graduated from Gonzaga University in 1985 with an electrical engineering degree. In 1987, he moved to Portland, Oregon, to work for a power-supply company as a sustaining engineer performing root cause failure analysis, and then as a design engineer for custom discrete commercial and military power supplies. In 1995, Bill co-founded Northwest Power as a subsidiary of Vicor Corp. to design and manufacture custom power supplies using Vicor core components. Vicor • https://www.vicorpower.com/
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Utilizing two removable SSDs, the Phalanx II is a rugged Small Form Factor (SSF) Network Attached Storage (NAS) file server designed for manned and unmanned airborne, undersea and ground mobile applications. w w w . p h e n x i n t . c o m
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
CMOSS: Buildingblock architecture brings speed, cost benefits By Sally Cole, Senior Editor
The C4ISR/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) enables engineers and developers of systems used by the warfighter to move toward much faster technology insertions and refreshes, with a corresponding reduction in long-term life cycle costs.
The C4ISR/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) is a modular open systems architecture (MOSA) intended to converge select Army warfighting capabilities – such as mission command, movement and maneuver, and fires – into one system vs. integrating a multitude of separate capability “boxes” into vehicles.
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Open standards for embedded military systems
Soldiers with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell (Kentucky) perform prototyping activities and operational assessments, all of which will inform mobile and tailorable command-post solutions, including C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) and Modular Open Radio Architecture (MORA) going forward. U.S. Army photo/Justin Eimers/PEO C3T.
CMOSS is one of the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) “successes in its early MOSA push,” says Nick Borton, machine intelligence hardware architect for SRC Inc. (Syracuse, New York). “It set the stage for how a standard architecture can shape the market, and reduce costs and integration times. Even though CMOSS was started by the Army, other branches of the armed forces are leveraging it to develop new systems.” The main benefit of open standards for the warfighter is that they enable much faster technology insertions and refreshes. “Getting needed technology and capabilities into the hands of the warfighter in a timely manner is where CMOSS hits the mark well,” Borton says. Other benefits are “maintainability, serviceability, supply chain logistics, and all of the other things that come with more modularity,” says David Jedynak, general manager for Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions’ Parvus Business Unit (Austin, Texas). “You get cost benefits when you’re lumping together what were previously separate systems – because you don’t need a separate chassis and power supply for each one of them once they’re all in one box. You also start to get cost savings in size, weight, and power as well.” Reducing vendor lock Another reason the government is pushing so hard on open architecture adoption is to reduce vendor lock, which gives the DoD more flexibility in upgrading and fielding new technology.
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“[CMOSS] avoids lock-in and provides a better performing product an opportunity to get selected instead of being eliminated from consideration because it doesn’t meet all the proprietary lockedin interfaces,” Jedynak points out. “The problem of surrounding a technology with nonstandard interfaces, so no one else can get in with their solution without an NDA and access to the interface/software, all goes away.” This type of situation is good, he continues, because it enables companies to focus on their core intellectual property instead of constantly reinventing the wheel. CMOSS impact on long-term life cycle costs All MOSA initiatives, including CMOSS, are also intended to reduce long-term life cycle costs. “Today’s systems are continuously challenged with product life cycle management (PLM) issues as they age,” says Mark Hutnan, vice president of business development for Abaco Systems (Huntsville, Alabama). “Many systems require parts that are at their end of life and unavailable – requiring additional costs to find parts on the secondary market, or paying for production lines to reconfigure and restart to build old components. SOSA/CMOSS alignment enables rapid tech insertion and upgrades since older and newer generations of components should be compatible, and greatly reduces long-term life cycle costs.” Costs to replace obsolete components, whether hardware or software, will decrease “By establishing a market around the mechanical interfaces of the plug-in cards, and on the wire interfaces of the software capabilities, already-developed products that meet most of the needs will already be around,” Borton notes. “Up-front development costs won’t be present to the same degree within a CMOSS ecosystem. Integration time and some enhancements may be needed, but much of the development cycle should be short-circuited from a system maintainer’s perspective.” (Figure 1.) www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 1 | Jason Dirner (right), Team Leader in the C5ISR Center’s Intel Technology and Architecture Branch, shows Gen. Joseph Martin (left), Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, a vehicle’s C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) capability. The CMOSS initiative is an effort to reduce the size, weight, and power footprint of C5ISR systems by enabling integration and hardware sharing for communications; position, navigation, and timing; mission command; and EW capabilities. Photo by Edric Thompson, C5ISR Center Public Affairs.
CMOSS origins Like many other open architecture initiatives CMOSS came to be because the end user wanted more commonality. “In the beginning, at various Army-related conferences, we saw high-level leadership express the desire to see a board- and backplanemodularized way of converging radios and processing and sensors rather than a bunch of standalone boxes,” says Jedynak. After a few years, it became clear no one was connecting the dots to a pathway forward. “So in 2013, we started pulling people aside to talk to them about the OpenVPX standard for embedded computing systems as a rugged backplane approach they could leverage to achieve their goals,” Jedynak continues. “This was early on, and it turned into the Army’s hardware/software convergence approach.” This is in fact how VPX became the hardware portion of the hardware/software convergence. “The software bits of it came from the user community,” he adds. “And the hardware portion came from the open architecture COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] vendor community.” Development on the Army side was done as a phased approach for a few years, “where they demonstrated things within the lab and then represented what it would look like on a vehicle,” Jedynak says. “It eventually evolved from being called ‘hardware/software convergence’ to ‘C4ISR/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards,’ and then to simply ‘CMOSS.’ It all started in 2013, and eight years later, things are really rolling forward.” MOSA/SOSA/CMOSS connection CMOSS is example of MOSA, which has become an imperative for all three armed services. On January 7, 2019, the DoD Service Acquisition Executives for the Army, Navy, and Air Force released a joint memo stating that MOSA-supporting standards should be included in all requirements, to the maximum extent possible. “MOSA is a philosophy that says: ‘Thou shalt do it in accordance with an open approach.’ Standards like SOSA or Vehicle Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability (VICTORY) are instantiations to meet the need to use a modular open systems approach,” Jedynak explains. “MOSA is an approach and lots of standards fit within that umbrella.”
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT The Under Secretary of Defense “endorses MOSA as ‘an integrated business and technical strategy’ to achieve competitive and affordable acquisition and sustainment over the system life cycle,” Hutnan says. “In the development of DoD systems, MOSA is an acquisition and design strategy consisting of technical architectures, which adopts open standards and supports a modular, loosely coupled, and highly cohesive system structure.” The Army’s answer to MOSA is CMOSS, which aims to consolidate warfighting capabilities. “CMOSS efforts are being led by the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, CommunicationsTactical (PEOC3T),” Hutnan adds. “CMOSS is a MOSA that uses published standards – OpenVPX, MORA, VICTORY, Redhawk, etc. – as opposed to a vendor’s proprietary standards.”
To bring all DoD service approaches to MOSA together, and to couple it with the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), the DoD solicited industry to get consensus on an integrated technical architecture. The Air Force, for its part, created Open Mission Systems (OMS): “The OMS initiative leverages open standards such as SOA, UCI, and FACE – all for normalizing command and control mission information for avionics systems,” Hutnan points out. The Navy’s version is Hardware Open Systems Technology (HOST), which divides hardware into three tiers: platform (airframe, vehicle), system enclosure, and boards. The latter two are subsets of OpenVPX, Hutnan notes. “Each service made solid progress advancing open systems principles, but each achieved results through different stove-piped initiatives, often sharing common open standards like OpenVPX,” Hutnan says.
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Open standards for embedded military systems To bring all DoD service approaches to MOSA together, and to couple it with the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), the DoD solicited industry to get consensus on an integrated technical architecture. “The result was the formation of the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium, which is managed by The Open Group,” Hutnan says. The SOSA Consortium helps “the government and the DIB to collaboratively develop open standards and best practices – enabling enhanced, accelerated development, and deployment of affordable, interoperable sensor platforms and systems,” he adds. “The SOSA standard effort is somewhat similar,” Jedynak says. “I want to be careful because I don’t want to speak on behalf of other people, but the people leading CMOSS connected with people leading open architecture efforts for other services, like the Air Force, and shared their experiences and lessons learned and asked: Could there be some synergy? And that’s where the people who started CMOSS helped kickstart the SOSA activities and then ‘aligned strongly.’” (Figure 2.) Not everything is a perfect fit across standards, but more commonality exists than ever before. Some portions of CMOSS “are nearly in direct alignment with SOSA and need very little modification to fit in,” says Borton. “In other areas, SOSA decided to take a different direction, and a system will need some ‘parallel play’ going on.” CMOSS influence on SOSA SOSA adapts the best of many open architectures and standards. CMOSS is no different. “Plug-in card profiles were initially imported from CMOSS,” Borton says, and “the system management module was inspired by CMOSS concepts, and the front-end modules (emitter/collector and conditioner/receiver/exciter) use Modular Open Radio Frequency Architecture (MORA) as their communications technology binding.” One important thing to keep in mind, Borton adds, is that while SOSA specifies components that can be together to make a sensor system, SOSA doesn’t specify the sensor system itself. “Those SOSA components, whether infrastructure or modular functionality, can reside side-by-side with non-SOSA components such as CMOSS,” he elaborates. “It’s up to the designer, with all of the factors they’re balancing, to determine how much SOSA (or CMOSS) a sensor system is comprised of.” CMOSS appears to benefit everyone. “The government gets a stronger, healthier set of standards. And the industry gets more opportunities – essentially the pie is getting bigger,” Jedynak says. “There’s more alignment and it’s good for lots of players – including existing players within the VPX market, but also for smaller companies that want to provide a special technology to the battlefield without delivering an entire turnkey system. It opens up more opportunities for people to bring their solutions that fit into this building-block architecture. Instead of a winner-takes-all way of doing things, more people are involved because it’s more modular and an open standard.” CMOSS-compliant product demand Demand for CMOSS started picking up in 2018 and since then, requirements for CMOSS have only increased, according to SRC. “Now we’re seeing CMOSS built into the solicitations for numerous ground vehicle programs such as Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) and Terrestrial Layer System (TLS),” Borton says. “As a sensor innovator, SRC is involved with many of these programs. Also, Army Capability Sets introduce CMOSS requirements in their 2023 increment. Demonstration events such as Tri-Service Open Architecture Interoperability Demonstration (TSOA-ID) and Network Modernization Experiment (NetModX) further reinforce the importance of CMOSS.”
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‘Top 31 +4’ modernization initiatives are seeing requirements for CMOSS in early requests for information and subsequent requests for proposals. Some examples of both Army Aviation and Ground Programs with emerging requirements for CMOSS alignment include Aviation/Air and Missile Defense – Future Vertical Lift, Rotary Upgrades (H-60, AH-64), Air & Missile Defense, Next-Gen Combat Vehicle, Abrams Upgrades, A-PNT, Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF), and Directed Energy.”
Figure 2 | The Curtiss-Wright CMOSS/ SOSA Starter Kit (CSSK) is a pre-integrated four-slot SWaP-optimized 3U VPX system that combines a VICTORY network module (aligned with SOSA profile: 14.4.14 DP/CP Switch), A-PNT module (aligned with SOSA profile: 14.9.2 Radial Clock), single-board computer (aligned with SOSA profile: 14.2.16 I/O Intensive), and 3U VPX power-supply unit.
The Army is driving significant requirements for SOSA/CMOSS alignments into current programs needing tech upgrades and emerging “first start” programs, Hutnan says. “Programs on the Army’s list of
CMOSS for embedded computing designs CMOSS also affects embedded system designs. Backplane I/O composition “has the largest impact on embedded compute,” Borton says. “In the age of multichannel gigasample converters in one slot, getting the data in and out of the receivers/ transmitter and the associated compute chains, and getting data in and out of plug-in cards, is fundamental.” Each card has access to a typically full-star Ethernet link(s) to any other card within the chassis and more localized PCIe connectivity to several local card slots. “Depending on backplane configuration, the PCIe bandwidth may be greater than Ethernet can provide. This can greatly influence a system or card set design. Depending on which data movement path you take (and the sheer amount of potential receiver data) could drive a need to have enough compute in the slot to decimate the data down sufficiently before passing it on over one of those interfaces,” Borton notes. In 2019, Abaco Systems decided to include SOSA/CMOSS alignment in its product roadmaps. “We now have a portfolio of 3U/6U VPX SOSA/CMOSS aligned offerings for single-board computers, graphics cards, digital signal processing, and networking,” he adds. MES
Secure Live, Real-Time Data Drives Relevance into MS&T Systems Sponsored by Real-Time Innovations (RTI) Integrating military simulation and training systems with live, real-time field operations data is challenging: Legacy training simulators use different standards for data, voice, and video that must be integrated with modern datacentric architectures that support both globally distributed information and cloud-based AI/ML systems. Moreover, very high-fidelity visualization technologies must be used. Learn how to use Data Distribution Service (DDS) to stitch together legacy simulation systems while integrating new technologies to create new, secure Live-Virtual-Constructive training environments. Watch the webcast: https://bit.ly/3CAoztR
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EDITOR’S CHOICE PRODUCTS
ARINC 429 repeater operates autonomously Holt Integrated Circuits has released an ARINC 429 repeater integrated circuit (IC) named HI-35851. It is designed to operate autonomously without a microcontroller unit or software and to extend cable reach and signal integrity by reproducing ARINC 429 signals transmitted over long cable runs or noisy environments. The compact device is intended to replace more complex solutions which typically require software and multiple components to decode, store, and encode the ARINC 429 signal prior to retransmission. Alternate input resistance and output resistance values are provided on the line receiver and line driver, respectively, enabling flexibility of use when using external lightning protection circuitry. External digital input control pins are also provided to set the receiver and transmitter data rates and enable data received from a low-speed ARINC 429 bus to be retransmitted on the output bus at high speed. An option to flip the bit order of the received 8-bit ARINC 429 label prior to retransmission is also provided. The device also features ARINC 429 digital outputs, which provide an option to use an external line driver: for example, Holt’s HI-8592, HI-8596, or HI-8597; an additional digital output sets the data rate on the external line driver.
Holt Integrated Circuits | www.holtic.com
Kontron debuts SBC with 11th-gen Intel and Celeron 6000 processors Kontron has introduced a new generation of 3.5-inch single-board computers (SBC) built on the latest 11th-generation Intel Core U processor series and Celeron 6000 series. The new 3.5-inch SBC-TGL is intended for graphics-intensive or artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, low-latency embedded systems used in harsh-environment smart or vision-based applications. By integrating the 11th-generation Intel Core U processor series and Celeron 6000 processor series with Intel Iris Xe Graphics, the 3.5-inch SBC-TGL delivers as much as 23% faster computing performance and up to 2.95 times faster graphics performance than its predecessors without the need for an additional graphics card. System integration costs, power consumption, thermal output, and space requirements of the 3.5-inch SBC-TGL are reduced because less hardware is needed. In addition to the highly enhanced graphics performance, the 3.5-inch SBC-TGL features two DisplayPort connectors on the I/O panel and supports up to two 8K video output channels at a frame rate of 60 frames per second. Alternatively, it can output four parallel DisplayPort signals. In addition to a GbE LAN port, the 3.5-inch SBC-TGL offers another 2.5 GbE LAN port to meet growing broadband networking requirements.
Kontron | www.kontron.com
Unmanned power connector designed for signal/power for UAVs TE Connectivity (TE) has launched an unmanned power (UMP) connector offering as many as 80 amps per contact and is available as a power or mixed-signal/power connector. According to the company, the growth of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) usage in the defense, aerospace, and industrial arenas – plus the mounting need for high-power connectors – spurred TE to design the UMP connector. Current market connectors commonly used in UAV and commercial drones have experienced challenges with amp rating, connector size, and mixed-signal variations, often having to sacrifice one benefit for the other. TE’s UMP connector is designed to provide a reliable contact interface that safely delivers power or both power and signal to control rotors, battery systems, and power distribution systems of UAVs. TE engineers used their experience in designing for the aerospace and automotive markets to design the UMP connectors with stronger materials that are proven in harsh environments and maintain reliable contact interfaces, all while keeping in mind the impact of weight and density. The launch features a variety of connector configurations and solder-free options. The newly launched line of UMP connectors is intended to withstand harsh environments using high-temperature materials, crimp pigtail assembly, integrated power, mixed-signal options, and a smaller bulkhead mount.
TE Connectivity | www.te.com 44 November/December 2021
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EDITOR’S CHOICE PRODUCTS
Rad-hard microcontrollers announced by VORAGO technologies VORAGO Technologies introduced two new radiation-hardened (rad-hard) microcontrollers, the Arm Cortex-M4 VA41628 and VA41629, intended to enable design flexibility for government, national security, and commercial space missions. The new product additions to VORAGO’s M4 family are intended to allow customers the flexibility to upgrade from previous generations of rad-hard Arm microcontrollers, as they feature functional compatibility and a more powerful entry level M4 core, in addition to having the ability to scale up to more highly integrated M4 core options with code compatibility. VORAGO officials say that the lower cost of the VA41628 and VA41629 offers a competitive level of flexibility for aerospace and defense design engineers. With this entry-level offering, VORAGO Technologies says it intends that cost-sensitive programs will design in the lower-cost part with the option of upgrading to a different Arm Cortex-M4 family member at a later date, with few or no changes in software configuration. The parts offer a direct memory access (DMA) controller, 64 kB on-chip data and 256 kB on-chip program memory SRAM, integrated multichannel analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and the VORAGO Hardsil radiation-hardening technology, with total ionizing dose (TID) > 300 krad(Si) and full latch-up immunity.
VORAGO Technologies | www.voragotech.com
Low-power/high-reliability memory qualified for space use Micross Components offers a new MRAM [magnetoresistive random-access memory] with the 1 Gb Qualified Encapsulated Device (QED), 32 M x 32 BGA [ball-grid array] device, based on a 22 nm pMTJ [perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction] STT [spin-transfer torque]-MRAM process node topology. The 1 Gb MRAM QED is a plastic encapsulated microcircuit screened and qualified to NASA electrical, electronic, and electromechanical specs. It is aimed at use in space-grade processor-based systems and FPGA [field-programmable gate array] boards aboard satellites, launch vehicles, space vehicles, and aerospace systems. These size, weight, and power (SWaP)-optimized MRAM devices enable true random read/write access within the memory array. The device’s architecture is analogous to flash technology with a static RAM-compatible read/write interface, advanced ECC, and configuration register with an additional asynchronous page mode feature. The part has an operating voltage range (supply) of 2.70 V to 3.60 V, with numbers for standby current at 5.5 mA and active current at 90 mA. Its extended-temperature ability ranges from -55 °C to +125 °C. Its nature as MRAM means that it is highly resistant to magnetic flux, which means there is no need to add more device shielding.
Micross | https://www.micross.com/
GPS/GNSS timing antennas receive and amplify radio signals Microwave antenna maker RadioWaves (an Infinite Electronics company) now offers a new series of GPS/GNSS timing antennas that cover L1 and L5 GPS bands. The antennas support a wide range of GNSS including GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, GALILEO, and IRIDIUM. The new series is intended for reception of satellite timing signals and reference frequencies for enhanced phase synchronization in precision network deployments. The new line enables increased position accuracy in densely populated areas, easier installation, and improved system security. The high-gain, low-noise figure of 2 dB and high out-of-band rejection provided by these antennas enable the use of longer and cost-effective cables for easy and flexible installs. They also feature a VSWR [voltage standing wave ratio] of less than 1.8:1 and are compatible with several existing mounting brackets. In addition, these ruggedized, weather-sealed antennas are IP67-compliant – which means protection against ingress of sand, water, and dust – and come equipped with built-in surge protection. The timing antennas are intended for use in rugged outdoor and marine environments. One of the newer offerings, The GP-L1-32-T-MNT antenna (shown) is designed with an integrated 32 dB LNA [low-noise amplifier] and operates within the L1 1.571 to 1.61 GHz bands; the LNA is DC-fed through the TNC female connector and is externally grounded.
RadioWaves | https://www.radiowaves.com/en www.militaryembedded.com
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CONNECTING WITH MIL EMBEDDED
By Editorial Staff
GIVING BACK | PODCAST | WHITE PAPER | BLOG | VIDEO | SOCIAL MEDIA | WEBCAST GIVING BACK Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day. This issue we are highlighting the recently formed Veterans Coalition for Vaccination (VCV), an effort driven by seven existing veteran organizations with the goal of enabling veterans to help other veterans obtain their COVID-19 vaccination. The impetus for VCV – spearheaded by Team Rubicon cofounder Jake Wood – came in early 2020 at the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S., when Team Rubicon veteran volunteers stepped in to aid food banks and pantries when those services were curtailed for fear of contagion. Volunteers from veterans’ charities Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, Team RWB, The Mission Continues, The Wounded Warrior Project, Student Veterans of America, and the Travis Manion Foundation joined the Team Rubicon groups to assist in critical community health-care efforts, including a drive-through testing site and a 250-bed federal medical station. Once vaccines became available across the U.S., the VCV’s veteran team members began to focus on aiding with vaccination efforts in all 50 states. VCV team members have been able to leverage their unique skills, expertise, and experience forged in military service to solve complex logistical and operational challenges of vaccination distribution. Team Rubicon’s Wood stated recently: “We’ve supported hundreds of sites across the country, doing the simple things like site setup and teardown, patient registration, optimizing patient flow. It’s been a modern-day medical wartime effort to get doses into the arms of Americans.” During the pandemic alone, Team Rubicon says that its teams of VCV volunteers have so far helped nearly 10 million people around the U.S., whether with pandemic-related aid or obtaining vaccinations. For additional information on and to donate to VCV, visit https://teamrubiconusa.org/vcv.
WEBCAST
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Ruggedizing Commercial Displays and Mobile Computers for the Warfighter
System and Component Qualifications of VPX Solutions
Sponsored by Crystal Group, Digital Systems Engineering, and IEE
By Steven Searle-Spratt, EIZO; Douglas Caldes, EIZO; Shane Dabrowski, Samtec; John Riley, Samtec
Commercial computing technology – smartphones, tablets, laptops, servers, etc. – enables consumers to reap the benefits of real-time communication, unprecedented processing power, and high-resolution graphics. However, getting that same level of technology for use by warfighters on the battlefield at sea or in a cockpit requires those products to carry features – like unique shock and vibration resistance, complex touchscreen features, nighttime display readability, and thermal challenges – that the everyday consumer will never see. In this webcast, a panel of industry experts discussed the challenges faced by users who need rugged equipment, how to solve those challenges, and what the future of consumer-to-defense equipment holds. Register for this on-demand webcast: https://bit.ly/3n46bVr Register for more webcasts: https://militaryembedded.com/webcasts
46 November/December 2021
Embedded computing systems in rugged, mobile applications are processing ever-increasing amounts of data. Systems require flexible solutions that can collect, analyze, and display data while surviving in extreme environments. Also a must: building within low size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints. Rugged, mobile applications continue to adopt VPX infrastructure, which defines a module standard common to rugged, mobile applications. VPX solutions are rugged commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) modules with high-speed serial interfaces such as PCI Express and Gigabit Ethernet. In this white paper, learn how EIZO and Samtec engineers developed a low-cost, easy to build, high-reliability test platform for VPX modules. The team says that the new platform supports data rates up to 16 Gbps up to 100 meters, via PCIe over fiber optics. Read this white paper: https://bit.ly/3wwACXC Read more white papers: https://militaryembedded.com/whitepapers
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TECHNOLOGY, TRENDS, AND PRODUCTS DRIVING THE DESIGN PROCESS Military Embedded Systems focuses on embedded electronics – hardware and software – for military applications through technical coverage of all parts of the design process. The website, Resource Guide, e-mags, newsletters, podcasts, webcasts, and print editions provide insight on embedded tools and strategies including technology insertion, obsolescence management, standards adoption, and many other military-specific technical subjects. Coverage areas include the latest innovative products, technology, and market trends driving military embedded applications such as radar, electronic warfare, unmanned systems, cybersecurity, AI and machine learning, avionics, and more. Each issue is full of the information readers need to stay connected to the pulse of embedded militaryembedded.com technology in the military and aerospace industries.
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