Monday, November 25, 2024

New EW Configurable Filter Module (EWCFM) Results Look Amazing!

Hi Everyone! The initial results for the EW Configurable Filter Module (EWCFM) look really impressive. We've created a connectorized module comprised of a surface mount Tunable filter, Gain Block Amp, Tunable Filter, Gain Block Amp, and 15.5 dB Attenuator. Initial results were taken stepping a 2 GHz bandwidth across 2-18 GHz in 500 MHz steps. An internal microcontroller stores up to 32 filter and attenuator states which can be customized for the user's needs. This surface mount assembly will provide significant improved reliability compared to "chip and wire" techniques using beam lead diodes. A preliminary Product Data Sheet can be viewed.
Posted by Bob Wood at 2:04 PM
Edited on: Friday, April 11, 2025 6:55 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Thursday, October 31, 2024

R. A. Wood Associates Top Level Catalog

R. A. Wood Associates has developed many RF/microwave components to support our higher level assemblies. These have been designed, built, tested and integrated into our delivered products. Since most of our products support EW missions, the parts are inherently wideband, and can be used in wideband or narrowband applications. We've created a Top Level Catalog of these components that can be downloaded.

The components include:

  • RF/Microwave Equalizers
  • RCT0050 Wideband Amplifier
  • RCT0067 Digital Attenuator
  • RCT0061 Wideband Amp/Digital Attenuator
  • RCT0075 HDR (High Dynamic Range) Gain Block
  • RCT0070 Mixer/LO Amp
  • RCT0080 EW CFM (Configurable Filter Module)
  • Wideband Power Dividers, 8 Way and 12 Way
  • SP2T Wideband Switches
  • Extreme BW RF Amplifiers

Let us know if you would like more information about any of these products!

Posted by Bob Wood at 12:17 AM
Edited on: Friday, November 15, 2024 7:11 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

2 RCT0056 RF/Microwave Receiver Simulators Designed and Delivered

We designed, bult and tested 2 new RCT0056 RF Receiver Simulators. These simulators match the performance of an RF system front end (noise figure, gain, Pin1dB, slope), and when connected to the back end of the system, the full system can be tested without the need for actual front end hardware. 12 Frequency bands were were provided, from VLF up to mmW frequencies. Adjustable attenuators were added to allow gain adjustment during testing.
Posted by Bob Wood at 6:51 PM
Edited on: Friday, April 11, 2025 7:18 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

RCT0071 RF Test Station for Fiber Optic Loop Testing

We designed and built a complete low cost RF/Microwave Test Station capable of providing signals and measuring responses from 10 MHz to 18 GHz. The station also provides Digital I/O and measures analog voltages. This test station is shown testing RF to Fiber Optic transmitters and Fiber Optic to RF receivers, evaluating the complete RF fiber optic loop. Everything is controlled by a USB interface. When coupled with our Automated Test Software, this station can perform many RF measurements, including gain, Pin/Pout 1dB, isolation, relative attenuation, and more. Everything is enclosed in a 3U chassis.
Posted by Bob Wood at 5:48 PM
Edited on: Monday, November 25, 2024 10:14 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Friday, September 08, 2023

6U VPX Microwave Module with State of the Art Residual Phase Noise Designed and Tested

We've recently designed, built, and tested a 6U VPX microwave module for a high performance radar system with state of the art residual phase noise performance. The module was tested with our Holzworth Phase Noise Analyzer. Residual phase noise of <-155 dBc/Hz at 1 KHz offset and <-162 dBc/Hz at 10 KHz offset were acheived. Spurious levels were <-130 dBc. Internal detectors provided input and output detected power levels for Built-in-Test reporting. This module was tested using our in-house vibration, temperature, and shock qualification equipment.
Posted by Bob Wood at 7:10 PM
Edited on: Tuesday, September 19, 2023 10:27 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

9X8 Switch Matrix / Up Converter SN40 Delivered!

We've delivered our 40th 9X8 Switch Matrix / Up Converter. We designed and started producing these in 2018, and have made on-time deliveries on each one since then. Congrats to the team on getting these products completed on time!  
Posted by Bob Wood at 6:27 PM
Edited on: Thursday, August 17, 2023 6:26 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Monday, August 07, 2023

14 X 12 Switch Matrix / Up Converter SN22 Delivered!

We just delivered SN022 of RCT0064. This unit allows 14 microwave inputs to be switched to any of 12 Microwave outputs. This was an extremely challenging design, with custom-designed 12-Way power dividers, our own RCT0050 WB Amplifiers, custom designed SP2T Switches, 3 internal switch matrix "cubes" (2X12, 6X12, and 6X12) with blind mate interconnections, and custom designed WB Digital Attenuator/Amplifiers, all in a 3U height rack mount package.
Posted by Bob Wood at 2:32 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Friday, June 16, 2023

New Design and Product Delivered: FSSDU


We've just designed and delivered a new product: First Stage Signal Distribution Unit (FSSDU). This 3U unit provides many functions, including:
  • Amplification and equalization of extremely wide RF and Microwave frequency bands
  • Distibution of bands to support many receivers and carry-on equipment
  • Combining of frequency bands to create a broad spectrum output for wideband analysis
  • Low noise figure, high dynamic range amplification to maintain the system RF signal path performance
  • This unit replaces an older unit with new hardware and expanded capability
  • Ethernet Interface
Posted by Bob Wood at 7:45 PM
Edited on: Friday, August 25, 2023 2:46 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Thursday, June 15, 2023

New Product Designed and Delivered: BIT / DVA Assembly

 

We've recently designed and delivered a new 1U Height BIT (Built-in-Test) / DVA (Digital Variable Attenuators) Assembly. This unit provides:

  • Wide Microwave Frequency Band coverage across 8 inputs
  • The capability to inject BIT Signals into each microwave input to support system health testing and grooming
  • Gain Adjust and high dynamic range Amplification using our RCT0061 Wide-Band Digital Attenuator Amplifier
  • Equalization to correct negative slope across the frequency band
  • Creation of mmW BIT signals using frequency doublers
  • Ethernet Interface
This part can be used anywhere in a system to inject Built in Test signals, while still maintaining the RF path dynamic range and noise figure. It's small 1U height allows it to fit in many locations in a system.
Posted by Bob Wood at 6:55 PM
Edited on: Thursday, August 17, 2023 8:06 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Friday, April 28, 2023

8X8 Backfit Switch Matrix / Up Converter SN 33 to be delivered

We've delivered Serial Number 25 of our 8X8 Switch Matrix / Up Converters, and are working on new orders of SN's 26-33. This is a 3U direct form, fit, and function replacement for a 6U LRU, giving the customer a modern upgrade and space savings at the same time. All deliveries have been on schedule!
Posted by Bob Wood at 5:37 PM
Edited on: Thursday, August 17, 2023 6:28 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Monday, October 31, 2022

The Millennium Edition HPOI Tuner Y2K Compliant!

Our 2000th HPOI Microwave Tuner was delivered!

In honor of the Y2K scare that was supposed to cause major world chaos on 12:00 AM, Jan 1, 2000, we have named this Tuner the "Millennium Edition", and have certified that it is Y2K complaint!
Posted by Bob Wood at 6:04 PM
Edited on: Friday, August 18, 2023 2:51 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Thursday, October 01, 2020

14 X 12 Microwave Switch Matrix / Up Converter Delivered

We just delivered our 1st 14 X 12 Microwave Switch Matrix / Up Converter (RCT0060). This unit allows 14 microwave inputs to be switched to any of 12 Microwave outputs. This was an extremely challenging design, with custom designed 12-Way power dividers, our own RCT0050 WB Amplifiers, custom designed SP2T Switches, and custom designed WB Digital Attenuator/Amplifiers. The whole unit is made to fit in a 3U rack mount location. Congrats to our great mechanical and electrical design, and integration and test team for developing this successful design!
Posted by Bob Wood at 11:29 PM
Edited on: Monday, August 21, 2023 2:44 PM
Categories: 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Friday, April 17, 2020

Microwave Tuner Serial # 1500 in process!

Hi Everyone!
We are marking the 1500th Microwave Tuner in production, showing Serial Number 1500 here. Congrats to our great team for working hard to get us to this amazing milestone!
We are still going strong manufacturing and shipping these now and for the forseeable future.
Posted by Bob Wood at 1:17 PM
Edited on: Sunday, October 23, 2022 10:43 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Thursday, January 23, 2020

RF Receiver Simulator RCT0053

We designed and built an RF Receiver Sumiulator RCT0053, designed to simulate the front end characteristics of an EW system, from the antennas to the downstream rack equipment. We used our customer designed RCT0050 WB amplifiers in many of the 6 microwave channels.
Posted by Bob Wood at 1:30 AM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Sunday, September 01, 2019

More Microwave Switch Matrices / Up Converters!

R. A. Wood Associates has received more orders for non-blocking microwave switch matrices for Naval applications. We have orders and are executing on QTY 21 9X8 Switch Matrices/Up Converters and QTY 20 8X8 Switch Matrices/Up Converters. Each of these matrices uses our own wideband power divider designs (8/9 each). The 9X8 design uses our own surface mount switches and ultra wideband (0.5 to 18 GHz) surface mount amplifier designs. Both of these products are packed into a 2U rack mount chassis design.
Posted by Bob Wood at 12:38 PM
Edited on: Saturday, October 31, 2020 2:16 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Friday, March 15, 2019

268 Microwave Tuners ordered for FY19!

R. A. Wood Associates received an order for 268 Microwave Tuners for FY19. This will bring our total orders to over 1500 Microwave Tuners, resulting in over 3000 digital/signal conditioning boards, and over 12,000 packaged microwave assemblies being assembled and tested at our facility, all with on-time delivery and keeping costs under control.

Posted by Bob Wood at 3:18 PM
Edited on: Monday, October 28, 2019 7:40 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

New Ultra-Wideband Microwave Amplifier Available!

We've developed a new Ultra-Wideband Microwave Amplifier, the RCT0050, covering the frequency band of 0.5 to 18 GHz. This amplifier is built using surface mount technology, resulting in a lower production cost than traditional MIC amplifiers, with faster delivery times. Typical amplifier characteristics are:

  • ~19 dB Average Gain
  • <3.0 dB P-P Flatness
  • 22 dBm Average Pout 1 dB
  • Noise Figure ranging from <2 dB to 5.0 dB.
  • ~200 mA Current Draw from +12 V

This is a great overall amplifier for low noise, high dynamic range, wideband EW applications, or narrowband applications. More information is available from this link. Let us know if you are interested in this product!

Posted by Bob Wood at 6:51 PM
Edited on: Saturday, November 14, 2020 10:53 AM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Friday, May 25, 2018

30 New Equalizers on our Equalizer WWW page!

If you haven't visited our Equalizer WWW page in a while, you'll notice we have about 30 new equalizer designs, covering different slopes and frequency bands. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Posted by Bob Wood at 2:57 PM
Edited on: Friday, May 25, 2018 3:05 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Thursday, April 19, 2018

We've built our 1000th Microwave Tuner!

We are excited to anounce that our 1000th Microwave Tuner is in burn-in and getting ready to be shipped! What a great accomplishment for our amazing team!

We've shown our customers that we can deliver a quality product at production rates, and meet their delivery schedules. I'd like to personally thank them for giving us the opportunity to meet their expectations. Thank You! Bob Wood
Posted by Bob Wood at 6:58 PM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 6:56 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Saturday, November 11, 2017

R. A. Wood receives order for QTY 9 8X8 Microwave Switch Matrices/Up Converters!

We just received an order for 9 RCT0043 Switch Matrix/Up Converters, to be used in Navy Vessels. These products allow 8 RF/microwave inputs to be routed to any of 8 RF/microwave output ports, The switch matrix is non-blocking.
The design includes:
  • Custom designed 8-way power dividers (covering a 4:1 bandwidth)
  • A low band Up Converter
  • An internal power supply
  • High Speed LVDS interface
  • High Dynamic Range RF amplifiers on inputs and outputs
  • Custom designed equalizers for slope correction, and
  • FPGA board for control and status (Built in Test) monitoring
The entire assembly is housed in a 2U rack mount assembly, saving precious rack space. The full frequency coverage is 0.5 to 18 GHz.
Posted by Bob Wood at 7:02 PM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 6:54 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

We received an order for 167 Microwave Tuners!

More exciting news that shows our continued comittment to our customers and the critical program these tuners are being used on.
Posted by Bob Wood at 12:40 AM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 7:35 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

R. A. Wood Associates Receives an Order for 212 Microwave Tuners!

After a difficult negotiation to make significant cost reductions, we received an order for 212 microwave tuners. We will be delivering these at an increased rate of 24 per month. The 2 slot VME wide band microwave tuner is shown here being tested in our portable microwave test station.
Posted by Bob Wood at 11:47 PM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 7:29 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 60 Hardware Products-Archive

Friday, August 19, 2016

24 more Microwave Tuners ready to ship!

 

Posted by Bob Wood at 6:33 PM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 7:20 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

New Equalizer designs now available!

We keep working on new designs for our customers, and improving on our earlier designs. We now have over 231 equalizer designs available, more than any other manufacturer. Various slopes over frequency ranges from DC to 28 GHz are available. You can go to our Equalizer WWW page to see what we have. Actual plots are shown for each design. If you don't see what you need, let us know, and we'll see if we can help you out.
Posted by Bob Wood at 4:32 PM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 7:20 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Saturday, February 27, 2016

New Capability to provide tight tolerance surface mount capacitors

Hi Everybody

We've recently developed the capability to automatically measure surface mount capacitors and bin them into very tight tolerance windows. We can work with 0603, 0402, and 0201 size capacitors. We can provide down to 2-2.5% tolerance capacitors for values down to 0.1 pF. These parts are typically only available in very wide tolerances (up to 50%).

This capability is very useful for filter designs, and other microwave circuit designs.

These tight tolerance capacitors can reduce or eliminate tuning typically needed to meet performance requirements.

We are going to start providing these parts to customers on a trial basis. If you are interested, please contact us to see how we can help you out!
Posted by Bob Wood at 1:24 AM
Edited on: Monday, February 29, 2016 3:27 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Tuesday, November 03, 2015

8X8 Switch Matrix / Up Converter Delivered

We delivered a new design to one of our customers: An 8X8 Microwave Switch Matrix /Up Converter. The unit allows 8 RF/microwave inputs to be routed to any of 8 RF/microwave output ports. The design includes:
  • Custom designed 8-way power dividers (covering a 4:1 bandwidth)
  • A low band Up Converter
  • An AC/DC power supply
  • High Speed LVDS interface
  • High Dynamic Range RF amplifiers on inputs and outputs
  • Custom designed equalizers for slope correction, and
  • FPGA board for control and status (Built in Test) monitoring
The entire assembly is housed in a 2U rack mount assembly, saving precious rack space. The full frequency coverage is 0.5 to 18 GHz.
Posted by Bob Wood at 12:11 AM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 7:30 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current

Monday, August 24, 2015

R. A. Wood Associates receives a new production order for 168 wideband Microwave Tuners

We've received another production order for wideband Microwave Tuners. We will be delivering these at a rate of 17/month.

Posted by Bob Wood at 2:27 AM
Edited on: Saturday, September 19, 2015 2:46 AM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

R. A. Wood Associates receives contract to build 8X8 microwave switch matrices

We received an order to design and build QTY 3 8X8 microwave switch matrices. The unit allows 8 RF/microwave inputs to be routed to any of 8 RF/microwave output ports. In another viewpoint, each of 8 RF/microwave output ports can select any of 8 RF/microwave input ports for down stream processing. The design includes:

  • custom designed 8-way power dividers (covering a 4:1 bandwidth),
  • a low band Up Converter,
  • an AC/DC power supply,
  • LVDS interface,
  • RF amplifiers on inputs and outputs,
  • custom design equalizers for slope correction,
  • FPGA board for control and status (Built in Test) monitoring

The entire assembly is housed in a 2U rack mount assembly, saving precious rack space. The full frequency coverage is 0.5 to 18 GHz. The first unit will be delivered in September 2015.

Posted by Bob Wood at 11:20 AM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Saturday, November 01, 2014

R. A. Wood Associates receives production order for 144 wideband Microwave Tuners

Another endorsement of our quality, great design, and determination to maintain low cost for our customer.

Posted by Bob Wood at 2:15 AM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Friday, June 27, 2014

More Microwave Tuners rolling off the Production Line!

Another 13 of our state of the art high dynamic range Microwave Tuners (with integrated synthesizers) are getting ready to be shipped (on time) to one of our customers. The shipment includes our 100th production Tuner, a very exciting milestone!

For more information, download the RCT0017 product sheet

Posted by Bob Wood at 6:38 PM
Edited on: Thursday, September 11, 2014 8:04 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

RPL0045 Low Band Modules: More orders in process!

LB Modules, Serial No's 32-43, built using our Extreme BW RF Amplifier designs, are on order and being built for our customer. These modules are being deployed in a subsystem on board U.S. Navy submarines.
Posted by Bob Wood at 3:15 PM
Edited on: Friday, July 25, 2014 3:19 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Some Feedback from One of our Equalizer Customers:

"Our experience with R. A. Wood Associates was beyond our expectations. The willingness to deliver a product in such a short time period was very refreshing. The product worked exactly as described and met our needs. We will very likely buy again."

We are always pleased to hear good feedback about our products and services!
Posted by Bob Wood at 1:10 AM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Production Orders for High Dynamic Range Wideband Tuner/Quad Converters

We are currently under contract to build 109 high dynamic range Wideband Tuners/Quad Converters over the next year. These devices feature:
  • The highest dynamic range microwave tuners in the industry
  • Maximum use of surface mount RF/Microwave assemblies for frequencies up to 18 GHz
  • 4 output IF bands to provide 1.5 GHz instantaneous bandwidth
We are bringing all our computer automated test software and hardware design expertise into this program to maximize our productivity and provide the lowest cost product to our customer.

This is the improved RCT0017B Wideband Tuner/Quad Converter, which is the result of 18 months of development improvements from our original RCT0017 model.

Posted by Bob Wood at 12:24 AM
Edited on: Friday, July 27, 2018 7:30 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 15 Microwave Tuners, 20 Hardware Products-Current

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Automated RF/Microwave Test Station

A 2nd general purpose automated RF/Microwave Test Station was designed and built by R. A. Wood Associates. The purpose was to provide automated test and device characterization to:
  • 10 MHz - 18 GHz test range as built with capability to expand up to 20 GHz
  • Reduce manual test time
  • Eliminate errors in recording of results
  • Increase throughput
  • Eliminate manual RF connections and DC connections in mid-test
  • Provide automated test reports
  • Save test results electronically in a database structure
The Automated RF/Microwave Test Station includes:
  • DAQ/Switch Unit
  • Three programmable power supplies
  • Signal Generator
  • Spectrum Analyzer
  • Table/Work Surface
  • Rack Mount Computer
  • Monitor
  • LabVIEW Software utilities to support setting up the Spectrum Analyzer and Signal Generator, retrieving data from the Spectrum Analyzer, controlling the RF Switch/DIO Box and other measurement equipment in the Test Station
  • Storage drawer
  • Custom RF Switch/DIO Box provides:
    • Automated RF Switching to 1 of 6 RF Inputs and 1 of 6 RF Outputs up to 18 GHz
    • Oscillators needed for Test Units
    • Digital I/O to control and read digital signals to/from Test Units
    • Relay Switching to read Resistances and switch DC Power to Test Units
 
Posted by Bob Wood at 12:49 AM
Edited on: Monday, October 07, 2013 7:49 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 30 LabVIEW Projects-Current

Monday, May 06, 2013

New Bench Top RF Switch Digital I/O Test Interface Box

The RF Switch/DIO Box is a custom designed LRU that provides:
  • Automated RF Switching to 1 of 6 RF Inputs and 1 of 6 RF Outputs up to 18 GHz
  • Oscillators needed for Test Units
  • Digital I/O to control and read digital signals to/from Test Units
  • Relay Switching to read Resistances and switch DC Power to Test Units
  • Bench top or Rack mount
We have built 5 of these for our own automated test stations. The design is universal and can be used for multiple test applications.
Posted by Bob Wood at 12:29 PM
Edited on: Monday, October 07, 2013 7:20 PM
Categories: 10 QuickNews, 20 Hardware Products-Current, 40 Engineering Consulting Services-Current