Microwaves & RF reports Military applications often push technologies to their limits. Applications such as electronic warfare (EW), radar, communications, and surveillance have made demands on RF/microwave technologies over the years, causing oscillator manufacturers to design sources with lower phase noise, and synthesizer developers to increase frequency switching speeds. Although it would be difficult to summarize the many trends in electronic technologies for military systems, a few trends are in evidence.
Additionally, more military receiver designers are exploring softwaredefined- radio (SDR) architectures for their flexibility in handling a wide range of waveforms in tactical applications. In essence, an SDR digitizes signals shortly after the receive antenna and generates waveforms for transmission by means of a high-speed DAC, allowing it to be reconfigured for different modulation bandwidths and modulation types based solely on software. In addition to military radios, the SDR architecture is also being adopted in many military radio test platforms for its software-reconfigurable flexibility. Major test equipment suppliers, such as Aeroflex, Agilent Technologies, Keithley Instruments, National Instruments, and Tektronix have adopted either SDR approaches and/or modular measurement formats such as PXI or VXI in response to the often multifunctional needs of military receiver, transmitter, and component testing. As an excellent review of SDR technology applied to radio testing, Tektronix offers a 16-page application note, “Testing Modern Radios,” in PDF form for free download from its web site.
