Conventional analog and RF signal processing requires discrete analog components to convert analog signals to baseband. Power hungry interfaces and antenna sharing present challenges to effective scaling. Furthermore, the push for complete digital transformation has placed increased demand for extreme flexibility, more independent beams and finer beam width. Intel® FPGAs with integrated data converter technology offer a high degree of flexibility, DSP capability, and scalability across multiple factors including the number of antennas, frequency bands, bandwidth, etc. providing analog/RF system designers with higher performance, lower power consumption, smaller footprint and a common front-end across the RF spectrum.
Introducing Intel® FPGA with Integrated ADC/DACs
With up to 64GSPS sample rate - chiplet based optimization provides a common front-end, flexible compute, connectivity and frequency agility for military, radar, high-end test and wireless solutions.
Addressing Digital Beamforming Needs
High sample rates, wide bandwidth and programmability differentiates Intel® FPGAs with integrated data converters from other products on the market and directly addresses the needs of systems requiring direct RF capabilities.
Heterogeneous FPGAs for Different Applications
Heterogenous integration via EMIB (Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge) chiplet interconnect technology and the open standard AIB (Intel's Advanced Interface Bus) enables integration of high-performance analog converter chiplets regardless of process node, foundry, or IP provider with Intel® FPGA programmable logic fabric in a single package. These technologies allow any number of advanced ADC/DAC technologies to be combined with the ideally matched FPGA fabric and processing chiplets to create solutions with varying analog, direct digitization, and compute capabilities that are more application-optimized than the alternatives.
Military and Government
The high sample rate of the data converter provides the Radar and Military systems with high instantaneous bandwidth - a requirement for applications including receiving & jamming, reconnaissance, and beamforming.
Test and Measurement
This technology offers Direct RF capability, which could provide a smaller footprint from reduced analog system components, lower latency, and lower power, thus offering a major advantage for high-end test equipment with lower SWaP and higher performance.
Wireless Communication
With integrated ADC/DAC technology for FPGA’s and the possibilities of future product variants with different data converters via our chiplet integration strategy, this technology is well poised to add new capabilities to the Wireless ecosystem.
Benefits of Integrated Data Converter:
Direct RF Capabilities
Integrated conversion and processing.
Lower Power Consumption
Eliminates JESD204 interface.
Less Circuit Complexity
Reduces analog components.
Wide Instantaneous Bandwidth
High sample rate.
High Performance & Flexibility
Intel® FPGA fabric.
Customer and Partner Quotes
Deon Viergutz, VP, Spectrum Convergence, Lockheed Martin
"This technology allows us to integrate our latest generation electronic warfare systems into smaller airborne platforms and air launched effects that were previously unattainable due to size constraints of the air vehicle. As a result, we’ve created the Ultra Small Affordable Electronic Warfare (USAEW) sensor that provides the 21st century warfighter advanced capabilities while substantially reducing the systems’ size, weight, power and cost by an order of magnitude."
James Li, Director, Electronic Systems Microelectronics, BAE Systems
"We have enjoyed collaborating with Intel on this new technology, which enables highly integrated microsystems for size-, weight- and power-constrained electronic systems. We are combining commercial-analog FPGAs and defense-augmented application-specific integrated circuits into a single, highly integrated solution providing at least twice the performance while enabling entirely new mission capabilities for our defense customers."
Dr. Karen H. Viani, Strategic Partnerships & Deputy Director, Technology Transfer, The MITRE Corporation
“Intel’s analog FPGA technology is paving the way for new, critically-needed wideband digital phased array solutions. The MITRE Corporation is excited to demonstrate Intel analog FPGAs with our Frequency-scaled Ultra-wide Spectrum Element (FUSE) technology, which will enable higher performance of multifunction missions through enabling new capabilities, reducing size/weight/power/latency”.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is integrated data converter technology?
Integrated data converter technology combines the functionality of an analog data converter (ADC/DAC) with an ideally matched FPGA fabric by leveraging Intel EMIB technology to provide a programmable solution with RF-analog capabilities. This integration eliminates the JESD204 interface and helps reduce system power, reduces analog components resulting in smaller system footprint and reduced complexity.
What is direct RF?
Direct RF sampling is the capability to digitize analog data directly at RF to move the data to the FPGA fabric for processing in the digital domain. Intel® FPGA with integrated analog data converter technology removes the need to implement RF to IF translation and absorbs the analog portion of the solution thus providing RF baseband.
What is heterogenous integration?
Advances in packaging technologies now make it possible to build complex systems in single package comprised of multi-function and multi-technology chiplets. With innovations in packaging technologies, designers can integrate their systems in a single package with chiplets that optimize specific functions using the process technology of choice. Emerging system requirements demand very high interconnect bandwidth with minimal interface power/bit. Intel provides the two key elements to make this possible—ultra-short-reach interface standard and integration packaging technology.