Case Studies

Gigahertz Transceiver Module for Military Application

Dreampact has worked on a major project for one of our clients to produce a working prototype for a transceiver module. This module has an RF front end working in the microwave frequency range and a DAC/ADC to allow digital signal processing using FFTs and filtering.

The signal and data processing is performed within a Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA, and the hardware configuration and off-module datacommunications performed by the embedded PowerPC within the FPGA.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dreampact were responsible for the technical feasibility study, architecture, design and development of the prototype board and all associated VHDL and software. Dreampact also commissioned a number of prototypes that successfully met the full military temperature range specification.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Working to very aggressive timescales, Dreampact successfully delivered a 100% yield in working prototypes in just 7 months from design conception to delivery.

In addition to the embedded software running in the Virtex II Pro PowerPC, Dreampact also developed a PC application to drive the module during turn-on and debug, as well as to provide test executive functionality for prolonged temperature testing and results logging. Other features in hardware and software allowed for easier performance analysis and fault finding.