Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/36713-antenna-processor-enables-all-digital-radar-ew-and-communications

Antenna Processor Enables All-Digital Radar, EW and Communications

September 13, 2021

To enable the next generation of radar, electronic warfare (EW) and communications systems to move from analog to all-digital antenna processing, IQ-Analog has developed the F1000 antenna processor unit (APU). The F1000 is the flagship of a complete APU product line to dynamically reconfigure multi-function antenna arrays with cognitive software control. These next-generation, multi-function active antennas can provide concurrent spatial beams with converged radar, communications and EW functions.

The F1000 offers size, weight and power benefits through monolithic integration of high speed data conversion and digital signal processing in a FinFET IC. The APU offers Full-Spectrum Conversion® with over 30 GHz instantaneous bandwidth. This is accomplished with a new data conversion architecture known as traveling pulse wave quantization that delivers more than 10x the data capacity of conventional architectures. Digital fast frequency hopping with dual-band processing in each converter channel and dual RISC-V control processors provide more than 180 TeraOps of embedded digital processing. The F1000 is manufactured domestically on a 12 nm FinFET CMOS process and can be provided as bare die or in a 10 x 20 mm ball grid array package. Available for sampling, the F1000 is supported with a hardware evaluation platform and software development kit.

IQ-Analog is an emerging semiconductor product company developing a family of APUs for both defense and commercial markets. IQ-Analog has a patent-protected integration advantage in wideband transceiver technology with the goal of serving a large share of emerging high volume commercial markets. The APUs are designed to help accelerate the rollout of commercial 5G networks, automotive radar, automotive LiDAR and connected car systems. The capabilities of the F1000 and a new common platform of APU components are enabling a technology refresh of legacy analog systems.

IQ-Analog,
San Diego, Calif.
www.iqanalog.com