Mercury Systems, Inc. introduced a Direct RF system-on-module (SoM) that uses Intel Agilex FPGAs to detect and process adversary emissions from a wide portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Direct RF components and modules directly digitize RF signals at the antenna signal frequency, eliminating the analog signal down conversion stages required by legacy hardware. This approach requires extremely fast converters, high bandwidth digital data links, and powerful real-time digital signal processing. The results are reductions size, weight, power, cost and latency that can benefit a variety of radar, communications, electronic warfare, SIGINT and industrial applications. Mercury offers industry-leading Direct RF products including system-in-package and multi-chip modules and 3U VPX processing boards.

The playing card-sized DRF2580 SoM brings new capability to the Mercury Processing Platform, giving customers the ability to design aerospace and defense systems that digitize a large swath of the RF spectrum at the edge, enhancing security and accelerating decision-making in the field. The DRF2580 is a four-channel SoM based on the Intel Agilex 9 SoC FPGA AGRW014 that converts between analog and digital signals at 64 Gigasamples per second. It is available in standard form factors and supported by a best-in-class carrier design kit that allows users to focus on application-specific carrier development, with much of the most challenging aspects of embedded circuit design already solved by the SoM.

“We continue to innovate to enhance the Mercury Processing Platform and make the latest commercial technologies available to the defense industrial base,” said Ken Hermanny, GM of Mercury’s mixed signal business unit. “These boards make direct digitization across the spectrum a reality. Until now, converter technology could not keep up with the wide frequency range of RF input and output signals. By supporting higher conversion and processing rates, larger portions of the RF spectrum can be efficiently captured, processed and exploited at the edge.”

“Intel Agilex 9 FPGAs with Direct RF offer Mercury Systems customers the critical SWAP capabilities and accelerated deployment required for next-generation applications in the aerospace and defense markets,” said John Sotir, senior director military, aerospace, and government business unit, Intel Programmable Solutions Group.

The DRF2580 features:

• SWaP optimized, 2.5" x 3.5" footprint for deployment in standard and custom form factors
• Support for up to 4x 100 GigE interfaces with carrier boards
• Navigator® Board Support Package for software development
• Navigator® FPGA Design Kit for custom IP development
• Carrier Design Package facilitates custom carrier board designs.