Lockheed Martin and AAI Select ZTEC Oscilloscope and RF/IF Digitizer for US Navy's eCASS Program

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTEC Instruments today announced that Lockheed Martin and Textron Systems AAI Corp selected the ZT4628 oscilloscope and ZT8442 RF/IF digitizer respectively for the US Navy's electronic Consolidated Automated Support System (eCASS) to test military aircraft on naval aircraft carriers and shore-based depots. Under the eCASS program, the Navy will replace approximately 600 ship- and land-based CASS systems with about 340 new eCASS units. ZTEC instruments provide highly accurate measurement capabilities and a flexible, bus-agnostic approach to test that allows mil/aero contractors and system integrators to save time and money by capitalizing on the technical benefits of modular instruments without having to reconfigure existing system to a new form factor.

The ZT4628 Oscilloscope for Improved Accuracy, Triggering, and Throughput

Lockheed Martin required an oscilloscope as a core eCASS instrument that would meet specific compatibility and performance requirements. They chose ZTEC because of the company's ability to understand the demands of the application, extensive mil/aero industry knowledge, and experience with test systems.

The ZT4628 oscilloscope helps engineers across the mil/aero industry – including contractors and system integrators – modernize test systems with specifications including FFT capability, deep and segmented multi-capture memory, and increased measurement capability with waveform math and acquisition modes. The oscilloscope also offers comprehensive self-test and calibration functionality, and advanced analog and digital triggering.

With the ZT4628 oscilloscope, Lockheed Martin met both compatibility and performance requirements while spending 30% less than in the original RT-CASS solution. In addition, with ZTEC's multi-platform approach, Lockheed Martin now can leverage their software development to other programs using its common core test software with other ZTEC modular oscilloscopes in PXI-, LXI-, VXI-, PCI- or hybrid-based systems.

• Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) protocol demodulation personality & GUI available (including 802.11ac)
• Cellular protocol demodulation personality & GUI available
• Comprehensive and intuitive software drivers
• Windows and Linux development environments

The ZT8442 RF/IF Digitizer to Create a Synthetic Instrument

In the RF measurement equipment kit (MEK) for eCASS, AAI used the ZT8442 RF/IF digitizer in the LXI form factor to create a synthetic instrument, a group of hardware and software modules used in combination to emulate a piece of legacy electronic instrumentation. The flexibility of the ZT8442 RF/IF digitizer and driver software allowed AAI to emulate MTA functionality while maintaining compatibility with existing TPSs in eCASS. With industry-leading specifications and performance, the ZT8442 helped engineers develop test systems that are future-proof to address emerging requirements for testing new aircraft.

The ZT8440 Series RF/IF digitizers have the highest instantaneous IF bandwidth, lowest noise floor, and highest dynamic range available on the market today. These specifications, along with fast switching, all-digital frequency hopping, and highly-flexible, real-time FPGA processing, make the ZT8441 one-channel and ZT8442 two-channel RF/IF digitizers ideal for a wide variety of applications in the commercial and military markets..

Award-Winning Device Will Serve Future RF Needs

The ZT8441 RF/IF digitizer was a finalist for the Test & Measurement World Best in Test award. Selected as a finalist because of its full-featured, on-instrument spectrum analyzer and unmatched technical specifications, the ZT8441 RF/IF digitizer is poised to supply the rapidly growing RF market with a world-class testing solution at a competitive price for complex applications like testing military aircraft and radar systems.

Product Specifications

ZT4628 Oscilloscope:

• PXI, LXI, VXI, PCI platform device
• 8 mVpp to 50 Vpp input range with +/- 250V offset
• 10 S/s – 2 GS/s sampling rates
• 500 MHz analog bandwidth
• 2.5 GS/s – 100 GS/s equivalent time sampling rates
• 256 M maximum capture length

ZT8442 RF/IF Digitizer:

• PXI, LXI, VXI, PCI platform device
• DC to 1 GHz frequency range
• 100 Hz to 160 MHz instantaneous IF bandwidth
• FPGA-based DDC with fractional resampling real-time signal processing
• 100 S/s to 400 MS/s alias-free sample rate
• Dual 400 MS/s 14-bit ADC
• More than 80 dBc spurious-free dynamic range
• RF/IF channels or dual I/Q inputs
• 512 MiB (up to 128 MiSamples of complex I/Q data pairs) memory
• +10 dBm maximum signal range

For more information on the ZTEC ZT4628 oscilloscope and ZT8440 Series RF/IF digitizers, readers can visit http://www.ztecinstruments.com.

About ZTEC

ZTEC Instruments is a leading modular instrument company whose products include oscilloscopes, waveform generators, and RF and IF digitizers for applications in testing military/aerospace standards. ZTEC Instruments products provide powerful bench-top instrument capabilities in modular instrument form factors, including PXI, VXI, LXI and PCI. For more information about ZTEC Instruments and how our products can address your test and measurement needs, please visit http://www.ztecinstruments.com.

ZTEC Instruments Press Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE ZTEC Instruments