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The importance of RFOptic’s presence at the Tyndall Air Force Base Tech Expo 2024

SFDR

The importance of RFOptic’s presence at the Tyndall Air Force Base Tech Expo 2024

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On December 10, 2024, we, as RFOptic, co-exhibited at the Tyndall Air Force Base Tech Expo together with Southern Marketing Associates (SMA, Inc.). Hosted by the 325th Communications Squadron, the event took place in Panama City, FL. After setting up our booth early, we were ready to meet captains, majors, other officers, and members from EW and engineering wings during their walkabout.

We were invited to deliver a speech to the Tyndall AFB leadership presenting RFOptic and explaining about our mission, solutions, and, in general what we do and stand for. We introduced our three RFoF product lines (0.5MHz to 6GHz RFoF programmable, 0.1GHz up to 67GHz HSFDR RFoF, and ODL and Altimeter ODL) as well as our custom solutions, such as DF/Phase match, optical mixer, phase control, and HD systems. It was received well and resulted in several officers visiting us directly afterward.

From those meetings, it is clear that their main interest is in remote antenna and simulator applications. Our RF over Fiber high SFDR for satellite remote antenna applications consist of outdoor and indoor end-to-end solutions up to 40GHz are suitable for Ku and Ka satellite antennas. The indoor terminal can be installed up to several kilometers from the outdoor solution that can be controlled remotely. This especially useful if a LAN connection near the antenna is impossible.

Our Altimeter RADAR Test solution is a high-frequency Altimeter Optical Delay Line (ALT ODL) solution for testing and calibration of radar altimeter systems. Benefits include very high accuracy and a maximum altitude of 100,000 feet or 30 km in one enclosure.

The Tyndall AFB Tech Expo aims to foster innovation, collaboration, and education by bringing together government and industry to address mission requirements and technology solutions to address mission requirements and technology solutions. What made this event unique, was that all organizations, units, and tenant commands were invited to explore, assess, and learn about current and upcoming technologies.

  • Innovation helps Tyndall AFB personnel to stay current on industry trends, evaluate the latest emerging technologies related to its mission, and explore innovative solutions to current challenges.
  • Collaboration consists of connecting Tyndall AFB personnel with industry partners (such as RFOptic), meeting new solutions providers, and discovering ways to adapt new technologies into existing infrastructures.
  • Education focuses on sharing knowledge on future requirements, learning about enhancements to current products and services, and supporting industry outreach.

It was an excellent opportunity for Tyndall AFB personnel to identify potential solutions and products worth exploring further. In general, we talked to many potential customers who showed a specific interest in our offerings.

To learn more, contact us.

Our participation in IMS2024 was a great success!

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In June, we participated for the first time in IMS2024. The IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium is a yearly event. This year, it took place in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, offering exhibitors a chance to connect with 9,000+ members of the RF and Microwave community from across the globe.

At our booth, we showcased our RFoF & ODL solutions for Electronic Warfare & Radar, 5G testing, and DAS applications, attracting many visitors. We received visitors from all over the world representing government agencies, major system integrators, and commercial enterprises active in the 5G cellular, satcom, broadcast, government & defense, testing & measuring, and Electronic Warfare & Radar industries.

We talked to more than 100 visitors who left their details to be contacted after the show, which resulted in sending out several proposals for RFoF solutions.

Our live demo got a lot of attention from interested parties, who asked our experts detailed questions.

The show also gave us a good opportunity to meet some of our distributors to catch up. We had meetings with representatives from Municom GmbH, our distributor for Central Europe, Fusoh Shoji Co., Ltd. from Japan, Amtele Communication, our distributor for Scandinavia, Matech from France, and Mitron from China.

The show demonstrated that there is a growing demand for the type of RF over Fiber subsystems and solutions that we, as RFOptic, offer.

Our next participation in an international exhibition will be at the upcoming European Microwave Exhibition. EuMW 2024 will take place during September 24-26 in the Paris Convention Center, 1 place de la Porte de Versailles 75015 Paris. At the event, we will co-exhibit in booth 422b of the company MATECH. We will showcase our advanced solutions for RFoF & ODL solutions for Electronic Warfare & Radar, 5G testing, and DAS applications. If you are interested in setting up an appointment with our VP Mr. Oz Abramson, during the event, click here.

RFOptic and Accutronics Have Won a Tender For Providing 18GHz Fiber Optic Links for Radio Telescope Applications

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Fiber optic links for radio telescopes by RFOptic

The tender was issues by he South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) for the supply of broadband 18 GHz fiber optic links to be deployed at its Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) site. It was to be used on HartRAO’s new Very Long Baseline Interferometry Global Observing System (VGOS) radio telescope.

Accutronics offered with its tender submission the 18 GHz HSFDR (High Spurious Free Dynamic Range) links manufactured by RFOptic. HartRAO required an Antenna Remoting solution that allows for the transmission of RF signals with a frequency range from 1 to 18 GHz over fiber while maintaining low spurious levels and excellent linearity. As RFOptic’s distributor in the region and with a solution that exceeds the requirement specifications, the logical choice was to offer the 18GHz HSFDR solution from RFOptic.

A high spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is desirable when multiple signals of very different power levels are expected to coexist. The high SFDR RFoF solution simplifies signal conditioning requirements that are required to avoid signal saturation and related complications including ALC and power range switching with attenuators or gain blocks.

Winning this important tender together together with Accutronics is a major achievement for RFOptic. It underlines the professionalism of Accutronics and the technology of RFOptic. The company’s high spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) solution provides the best cost performance, has a high SFDR of 113 dB/Hz and a spurious level of less than -95dBm. Additionally, it offers excellent phase noise, phase linearity, and gain flatness. It can also be supplied in a variety of indoor and outdoor enclosures, thus offering great versatility.

RFOptic has launched its high frequency links with ultra-low spurious level for RADAR and EW applications

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At the request of customers, RFOptic has now launched 12GHz, 18GHz, 20GHz, 30GHz, and 40GHz RF over Fiber links that have an ultra-low spurious level of less than -95dBm. This means that RFOptic’s MiniQ RFoF series provide spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) better than -112dB/Hz. Spurious RFoF solutions are essential in order to mix non-harmonic spurious signals with the input RF signals at the output of the RFoF link. The spurious signals increase the Probability of False Alarm (PFA) and Minimum Detection Signal level (MDS) for EW and RADAR systems and degrade the Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR) in communication systems.

On a technical level, achieving extremely low spurious levels is a major challenge, particularly in small and tight RFoF modules where power consumption must be kept as low as possible. Many applications can only be supported by a design that achieves low spurious levels across extremes of the RFoF link bandwidth. Applications such as Optical Delay Lines, used in many RADAR test ranges, require ultra-low spurious to test and optimize extremely sensitive systems.

Thanks to the efforts of RFOptic’s R&D department, the new offering will achieve this critical parameter, which opens the market for RADAR and EW as well as other applications.

In general, a high spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is desirable when multiple signals of very different power levels are expected to coexist. A high SFDR RFoF solution simplifies signal conditioning requirements that are required to separate true signals from the unwanted spurious. There are well-known techniques, which are intended to identify the spurious signals and null them including LO dither, adjustable ALC, and power range stepping.

However, these techniques complicate the extraction of the real signals of interest and require extra signal processing, which now can be reduced or re-directed to deal with the real input signals rather than with artifacts of the RFoF link. During antenna, RADAR, or communications system testing, high SFDR is essential due to the typical large signal amplitude ratios between main and side lobes or between close and distant targets. The same applies to DF/ELINT systems, which have to handle strong jammers concurrent with weak signals of interest.

To learn more, click here or contact RFOptic at sales@rfoptic.customcode.co.il.