FPGAs in space-based applications

While half the universe is at Embedded Systems Conference, I’m staying close to my Colorado home and attending one of my favorite conferences of the year, the National Space Symposium. While FPGAs have become more commonplace in satellites since systems manufacturers turned to common bus architectures, there’s always a surprise or two on the show floor, demonstrating FPGAs as a front-end for signal processors or custom data-acquisition systems in communications and intelligence.

This year, BAE Systems surprised me with a space radar warning receiver based on the Virtex-4Q as an orchestrator for multi-channel direct digital RF sampling. The system is intended to be used aboard an orbiting satellite used in detecting ground-based tracking and surveillance radar.

The receiver has been integrated in a small, rugged 8-inch-square box with a frequency coverage of 0.5 to 1.8 GHz. The entire unit is conduction-cooled and dissipates under 25W. The FPGA is used specifically for high-band detection, low-band parameter measurements, and estimation of the Pulse Descriptive Word. Since post-processing functions such as signal identification and location can be relegated to software, the entire receiver requires only a multi-band antenna for support. It can be software-configured for a variety of satellite platforms.

This is the kind of FPGA use in signals intelligence which I suggested might replace many multi-DSP designs, particularly where footprint space is at a premium. Later this week, I’ll toss in an observation on the continuing FPGA/ASIC debate on which my colleague Ron Wilson has weighed in on so eloquently. In the meantime, it’s back to the show floor to find unexpected examples of FPGAs in space.