25 GS/s Wide-Band Receiver & Transmitter Board-Set for EW and Wideband Communications Announced by Curtiss-Wright

25 GS/s Wide-Band Receiver & Transmitter Board-Set  for EW and Wideband Communications Announced by Curtiss-Wright
25 GS/s Wide-Band Receiver & Transmitter Board-Set  for EW and Wideband Communications Announced by Curtiss-Wright
Press release
March 31, 2015

25 GS/s Wide-Band Receiver & Transmitter Board-Set for EW and Wideband Communications Announced by Curtiss-Wright

New rugged VPX board-set, industry's fastest, enables direct RF sampling at 12GHz with next-generation 25 GS/s receiver and transmitter modules

AOC 44TH ANNUAL COLLABORATIVE ELECTRONIC WARFARE SYMPOSIUM - Point Mugu, Calif. - March 31, 2015 - Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) today announced that its Defense Solutions division, in collaboration with Tektronix Component Solutions, has doubled the already industry-leading analog-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analog (DAC) data bandwidth performance supported by its groundbreaking CHAMP-WB OpenVPX™ board family, raising the product's unprecedented sampling rate from 12.5 GS/s to 25 GS/s (at 8-bits [ADC]/10-bits [DAC]). With the highest bandwidth ADC/DAC performance ever offered in the defense and aerospace commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) market, the CHAMP-WB can now be configured as a single channel (25 GS/s) or dual-channel (two 12.5 GS/s) ADC (CHAMP-WB A25G) or 25 GS/s DAC (CHAMP-WB D25G) engine to address the most demanding wide spectrum communications applications. These board-sets enable, for the first time, direct RF sampling of bandwidths up to 15 GHz using open architecture COTS modules.  The new board-sets speed and simplify the design of very high-performance Wideband SIGINT, EW, and SATCOM applications for deployed platforms such as manned and unmanned aircraft, ground vehicles, ships and base stations.

These open-architecture receiver and transmitter products are the latest ISR and EW solutions resulting from Curtiss-Wright's technology and marketing partnership with Tektronix Component Solutions. The ultra-high sampling rates, supported by the board-sets, enable huge swaths of bandwidth to be scanned for signals of interest.  When used in dual-channel mode, the CHAMP-WB A25G saves a system slot, eliminating the need for a second CHAMP-WB to provide a second independent channel. The new ADC and DAC modules that are hosted on the CHAMP-WB board were jointly developed by Curtiss-Wright and Tektronix Component Solutions. The ADC module hosts two multi-chip modules (MCM) each of which contains an ADC and dual DEMUX silicon. The CHAMP-WB A25G also contains a 25 GS/s front-end track & hold device for aligning the data between the two MCMs. The track & hold enables the CHAMP-WB A25G to be operated at 25 GS/s in single-channel mode, or at 12.5 GS/s per channel in dual channel mode. When used in dual-channel mode, the CHAMP-WB A25G saves a system slot, eliminating the need for a second CHAMP-WB to provide a second independent channel.

"Our new 25 GS/s receiver and transmitter board-set doubles the wide-band processing bandwidth achievable using open standards-based rugged COTS technology," said Lynn Bamford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Defense Solutions division.  "Our relationship with Tektronix Component Solutions continues to push the envelope of what's possible with COTS-based wideband communications, and provides industry leading technology to our customers who need ever-increasing wideband processing capability."

Offered first in an L0 air-cooled configuration, with rugged variants to follow in the future, the CHAMP-WB A25G and CHAMP-WB D25G, enable system designers to begin rapidly begin development of their wideband applications.

A Complete System Offering

These 25 GS/s receiver and transmitter boards join Curtiss-Wright's already extensive HPEC (High-Performance Embedded Computing) family of modules and fully integrated system solutions. They complement Curtiss-Wright's wide range of Intel® and Power® Architecture-based VME and VPX SBCs, DSP engines and GP-GPU engines, and other FPGA products such as the earlier CHAMP-WB-DRFM and CHAMP-FX4 board, and VPX processors like the VPX6-1957, and CHAMP-AV8, as well as Curtiss-Wright's broad range of signal processing I/O FMC mezzanine products, including the FMC-516/518/520. 

The CHAMP-WB A25G and CHAMP-WB D25G 25 GS/s receiver and transmitter products are part of the Curtiss-Wright's Fabric40™ family of 40 Gbps performance boards and backplanes. Combining these products with Curtiss-Wright's Fabric40 network switch and backplane products enables system designers to quickly and easily develop interoperable highly scalable, high-performance systems. 

Software Support

Software support for the 25 GS/s receiver and transmitter modules will include Curtiss-Wright's industry-leading FXTools™ BSP and FPGA design kit, which features highly-optimized IP Blocks, a development environment, reference designs, scriptable simulation test benches and software libraries. Operating environment support includes VxWorks® and Linux® variants.

The CHAMP-WB A25G and CHAMP-WB D25G are scheduled for availability Q3 2015. Contact the factory for more information.

About Curtiss-Wright Corporation

Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW) is a global innovative company that delivers highly engineered, critical function products and services to the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets.  Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright has a long tradition of providing reliable solutions through trusted customer relationships. The company employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide.  For more information, visit www.curtisswright.com.

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John Wranovics

John Wranovics

Director of Public Relations

John Wranovics has over thirty years of experience in managing media relations and the promotion of high technology products. He has been with Curtiss-Wright since 2003. He has a degree in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.