Rf frontend

DESIGN CAPABILITIES​

  • Maximize RF Capability and Readiness
  • HF thru Ka-Band Custom Designs
  • High Sensitivity
  • High Linearity
  • Low Noise Figure
  • High Efficiency
  • Varactor Tuned Front-End Filtering
  • Broadband Frequency Coverage
  • Automatic Gain Control (AGC)
  • High Interception Point
  • Small Form Factors
  • Extreme Ruggedization
  • Custom Designs

Highly Dynamic RF Frequency Converter Design

MEC developed a high-performance, RF upconverter and downconverter module pair for a major DoD prime contractor. The customer had a need to increase the capability of their existing communications hardware to operate at new frequencies and was budget constrained. MEC was able to offer a significantly cheaper alternative solution than the hardware OEM, adding RF upconverter and downconverter modules to their communication system to expand their range of frequency operation.

Based on MEC’ Multi-octave RF Upconverter (MORF) and ConvertaWave2 downconverter products, the custom modules featured UHF, L- and S-band coverage and a custom IF, high dynamic range, flat pass band, signal conditioning with high linearity, low insertion loss, and comprehensive programmability. MEC was also later contracted to add additional performance improvements to the downconverter module, which included improved linearity, spurious rejection, phase noise, and additional resolution in the attenuation control. The C-band transverter system developed by MEC enabled a Bandit transceiver to communicate with a CMDL transceiver over C-band frequencies.

L-Band Frequency Upconverter Design

Fast paced 7-week development effort. The hardware supports CubeSAT Missions and is needed to enable communication on multiple frequencies and waveforms simultaneously while enabling high power transmissions to overcome losses and canopy penetration.

Wideband Block Frequency Downconverter Design

Circuit card assembly for a two channel ultra-wideband mixing and signal conditioning unit to be used with a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based Digital Signal Processor (DSP). Prototype capable of down converting any signal from 100 MHz to 10 GHz down to baseband.