Aerospace and Defense Solutions

Introduction | Featured Resources | Products | Market Trends

Aerospace & Defense

Abracon is a global supplier of components used in a variety of Aerospace, Defense, and Security applications. These include a wide range of deployments in Air, Naval, Land, Space, and Personnel Equipment. The industry includes RADAR/LIDAR systems, radio communications, datalinks, aircraft computing, missile control & guidance, head-up displays, surveillance & imaging systems, positioning & navigation, and various countermeasure systems. Electronic sub-assemblies need to be robust to environmental conditions such as extreme temperatures, vibration, dust, and humidity, with high reliability even in challenging environments.

Featured Resources

Featured Inductor and Connectivity Solutions

Featured Frequency Control Timing Solutions

Frequency Control & Timing Devices

Abracon PAS Service Flyer

Abracon Timing Catalog

RF & Antennas

Abracon Interactive Antenna Catalog

5G Sub-6 GHz Antennas

Abracon GNSS External Antennas Flyer

Inductors & Connectivity

Abracon Interactive Inductor Catalog

Abracon Application Note - Inductor Reference Guide

Abracon Aerospace and Defense Video

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Radar Systems

A radar is a system that uses radio waves to detect the presence, location, and movement of objects. When an object is present, radio waves will reflect and be picked up by a receiver. With multiple pulses, the velocity of the target is determined by comparing the change in distance over a period of time. Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) works with the same principle but uses light instead of radio signals. Typical use cases for radar include air traffic control, ship tracking, weather monitoring, and military object detection.

The ClearClock™ Series crystal oscillators are designed for ultra-low jitter performance resulting in exceptionally high reliability with the extended temperature range option suitable for -40 to +85C environments. The ultra-low jitter results in low data packet losses for secure connections and data processing making them ideal for RADAR applications.

The ASPIAIG Series shielded inductors are rated for an operating temperature range of -40 to +125C. EMI shielding is another key feature in EMI-sensitive applications where stray EMI needs to be minimized.

The ATFC Series thin film RF inductors are well-designed with high SRF, excellent Q, high stability, and extended temperature range (-45C to +85C) making them ideal for RF applications including the datalink present in RADAR and LIDAR systems.

Communication and Datalinks

Communication systems involve transmitting information from one person or system to another. The technology is often radio-based, sending and receiving radio signals by communication systems. Communications can also use wired transmission, laser-based, or other forms of datalink. Datalinks operate between the onboard sensors (e.g., airspeed) and a computer for processing. Typical requirements include security, high reliability, and high data rates, which are most commonly used in air traffic control, ground-to-air, air-to-ground, air-to-air, satellite, ship communications, and datalinks.

Abracon radio communication device for secure and reliable datalink

Abracon’s ”W” Series crystals are ideal for the frequency referencing radio, communication, and datalink chipsets; the ultra-low plating capacitance and low-ESR design enables low power consumption and crucially excellent start-up performance even where the latest chipsets provide a lower crystal drive current. Extended operating temperatures of -40 to +105 and +125C are available for further reliable performance in challenging environments, and where safety is critical such as in the aerospace industry.

The ABM12W Series quartz crystal resonators are part of the Tiny But Mighty collection, as with other series in the collection, the devices are ultraminiature and lightweight making them ideal for reference timing in the aerospace industry where lightweight is a key consideration.

The ClearClock™ Series crystal oscillators are designed for ultra-low jitter performance resulting in exceptionally high reliability with the extended temperature range option suitable for -40 to +85C environments. The ultra-low jitter results in low data packet losses for secure communications and datalinks. A key example is communications between sensors and onboard computer systems such as the CANaerospace protocol.

The ARJ-199 and ARJ-139 Series RJ45 connectors with magnetics can support Power Over Ethernet (PoE++) with a high maximum PoE current capacity of 1000mA, allowing an efficient system to be realized as the Ethernet cable can provide the necessary power to the various aircraft sensors, saving precious weight at the same time. The devices are also rated for extended temperatures of -40 to +85C making them ideal for aerospace and defense applications.

A military radar system for aerospace and defense applications

Computing and Data Processing

Computing is commonly used for aerospace and defense applications. The large volume of data from sensors, imaging systems, and communications often needs data analysis as part of the data interpretation, collection, and overall decision-making. Specific examples include image interpretation, signal processing, sensor fusion, analytics, and encryption.

The ClearClock™ Series crystal oscillators are designed for ultra-low jitter performance resulting in exceptionally high reliability and very low packet losses making them ideal for computing and data processing applications. Furthermore, the extended operating temperature range provides robustness even over a wide temperature range, -40 to +85C.

The ASPIAIG-Q Series high power density transportation inductors feature high-current and low-profile solutions for designs requiring high power rating, reliability, and wide operating temperature -55C to +155C. The parts meet the AEC-Q200 and PPAP standards.

Abracon’s ”W” Series quartz crystals are ideal for many applications in the aerospace and defense industry. The design is optimized for ultra-low plating capacitance and low-ESR resulting in high reliability and low power consumption. Applications examples include chipset frequency referencing used for flight control systems, satellite computing, video image processing, and military-grade computer systems.

Avionics

GNSS is the most often used method for aircraft navigation. This includes UAV/drone guidance, flight control systems, and autopilots. Ground navigation GNSS systems use “trilateration,” where the distances to three or more known reference points are used to determine the position. An alternative to GNSS, aircrafts can use an Inertial Navigation System (INS). These use multiple motion sensors such as accelerometers and rotation sensors to recognize the position relative to an initial reference point. The INS systems are immune to GNSS jamming, making them suitable for defense aircraft and equipment in GNSS-denied operations. Applications include Flight control systems, Flight Control computers (FCC), UAV/drone guidance, navigation instruments, and autopilot systems.

The AST3TDA Series ultra-performance TCXOs deliver precision frequency stability of +/-50ppb, +/-100ppb, and +/-280ppb. The devices compensate for temperature changes effectively to achieve these performances. Extended operating temperature parts are available with options of -40C to +85C and -40C to +105C making them ideal for aircraft flight control systems.

The APAKM3513-SGL2 is a stacked patch antenna solution covering the GPS L1, L2 (military band) and L5 (precision band). The patch is circularly polarized to maximize the signal pick-up. It is 35.6 x 35.6 x 13.5mm for high performance. Operating temperatures of -40C to +85C, storage is -40C to +105C.

The AFS14A04-1575.42-T3 SAW filter is designed for the 1.575 GHz and 40MHz bandwidth making it ideal for GPS L1, Glonass, and BeiDou GNSS bands. The surface-mount device is exceptionally small and lightweight with 1.4 x 1.1 footprint and 0.7mm height. The Insertion Loss is low at 0.9dB, making it ideal as part of a GNSS RF Front End receiver circuit either in singular form or in two together for additional out-of-band rejection (OBR).

Power Inductors for Aerospace and Defense solutions with Abracon

Power Systems

Power supplies are used to convert power sources or stored energy into a form that is suitable for an electrical system. For most aerospace and defense applications, there are several design goals for power supplies. These include high reliability over a wide temperature range as a critical factor, robustness to high vibration, electromagnetic interference (e.g., MIL-STD-461 and MIL-STD-704), small size, lightweight, and high-power density. For power supplies such as DC-DC converters used as part of defense equipment, versatility is often a key criterion with the option of any number of standard output voltages such as 5V, 12V, 24V, 28V, and 48V.

The ASPIAIG-Q Series power inductors are well-suited for power supplies used for aerospace and defense applications. They are rated for a very wide temperature range of -55C to +155C (AEC-Q200 Grade 0 applications i.e. automotive under-the-bonnet applications), fully EMI-shielded design, soft saturation, low DCR, and high efficiency. All of these features enable a high-performance power supply / converter to be realized.

Imaging and Surveillance Systems

Surveillance systems monitor and gather information from a situation or location which can be in both land and marine environments. Imaging systems with video processes at the back end form a large part of the surveillance equipment in aerospace and defense. The imaging equipment can be based on a variety of cameras or sensor types, for example, visible, infrared, spectral, radar, sonar, ultrasonic, or an integrated system using a number of these forms.

Aircraft Camera for Aerospace and Defense

The ClearClock™ ultra-low jitter oscillators are ideal for applications involving image processing, video conversion, and vision systems. The high-speed processing of images requires an ultra-low-jitter reference clock to achieve very low data errors at high speed. Abracon’s ClearClock™ products have been designed with ultra-low jitter performance in mind. They are an effective solution for FPGA frequency referencing. The AX3, AK2, AK5, and AK7 Series use a crystal operated at third-overtone available with industry-standard frequencies between 100MHz and 212.5MHz. The AX7 and AX5 Series have an integrated PLL (Phased Locked Loop) circuit resulting in availability at standard industry frequencies from 50MHz to 2.1GHz. Extended operating temperatures -40C to 85C are an option.

The ARJM11D7 Series is a high-performance RJ45 10/100/1G/5G single port with integrated magnetics for EMI suppression. EMI suppression is often important in many aerospace and defense applications. The solutions can be used for Ethernet communications between cameras and image processing systems, the high-speed capabilities make them ideal for high-speed systems. There is an option for an extended temperature range -of 40C to +85C.

Personnel Equipment

Personnel equipment includes asset tracking (GPS), military wearables (e.g., biosensors), secure radio, smart rifles, communication headsets, camera systems, computing equipment, honing sniper rifles, canine wearables, and other smaller-scale equipment. Robustness to vibration, mechanical shock, and wide temperature range is typically required.

The Tiny But Mighty Collection is Abracon’s family of ultra-compact RF, Timing and power passive components provide the smallest footprint while achieving a high functionality.

Part of the Tiny But Mighty collection is the ABS04W Series 32.768kHz quartz crystals used for use as the reference frequency for “sleep functions” of wireless communication chipsets such as NFC, RFID, Bluetooth®, and many other wireless protocols. They are ideal for compact personal equipment such as military wearables given their ultra-small size at 1.2 x 1.0 x 0.5mm. The series features a seam-sealed package, low-ESR, and low load plating capacitance of just 4.0pF making them an excellent choice for long-term reliability. Furthermore, the devices are available with a wide and very wide operating temperature ranges of -40C to +85C, +105C, and +125C.

Aerospace and Defense Market Trends

A&D Application	A&D Trends
Radar Systems	Radar is a key technology in Aerospace and Defense, justifying R&D spending to drive advancements. There is a trend towards higher precision, longer range, more targets, more effective noise filtration, etc. In addition, many advanced features are now becoming commonplace in modern radar systems, including doppler, multiband, multifunctional, and passive radar systems, multiple target detection, and electrically scanning antenna arrays.
Communications and Datalinks	Software Defined Radio (SDR) is increasingly being used where the software is utilized to define radio characteristics such as radio frequency instead of hardware. This gives more flexibility as the radio can be easily changed or updated by modifying the software. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or drones are increasing in use. The UAVs often require communication with a controller, follow pre-set waypoints, or have AI capabilities for airborne decision-making.
Computing and Data Processing	Sensor Fusion: The demand for higher-resolution imagery (visible, infrared, radar, etc.) with multiple sensors drives the need for higher computing speed and reliability. The use of “sensor fusion” further creates a need for high-performance computing. AI (Artificial Intelligence) capabilities make use of a high volume of information for UAV decision-making and object identification.
Avionics	Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS): GNSS is prone to errors due to the changes in the atmosphere (ionosphere) and radio interference. This has led to the development of a complimentary system known as a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS). The system checks the accuracy of the GNSS system using several ground-based reference points with precisely known longitude, latitude, and elevation. The deviations from the correct GNSS signals are then sent to geostationary satellites, which broadcast the corrected signals to SBAS-enabled GPS receivers.
Power Systems	EMI specifications: The EMI specification (MIL-STD-704A) is a more stringent version of the MIL-STD-704 applicable to the aerospace and defense power supplies. In addition, airplane manufacturers may also introduce their own EMI specifications given the highly critical nature of the application. Other trends for power supplies in the Aerospace and Defense industry include higher power density, Switching Mode Power Supplies (SMPS) for higher power efficiency, and micro reactors (nuclear).
Imaging & Surveillance Systems	AI (Artificial intelligence): AI software allows objects to be recognized and can used in combination with radar systems, visible, infrared, and ultrasonic imagery. Ground Surveillance radar with multiple functions for ballistics detection and tracking, air and space surveillance. Radar has multiple capabilities such as IFF (Identification, friend, or foe), FMCW (Frequency-modulated continuous-wave), and other functionalities.
Personnel Equipment	Head-up displays trends for modern aircraft that have smart helmets and present information to the pilot highlighting targets and key information such as waypoints and local conditions.

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Aerospace and Defense

Aerospace & Defense