Research and Development

Most of the projects featured on this site include an element of fundamental research and development. Recent work of note includes:

Low-cost, low distortion (greater than 38dBm IIP3, 40dBm typical) mixer for HF receiver system.
Low-noise frequency synthesiser for HF communication system. A hybrid DDS/PLL configuration allowed disrete spurs, phase noise and switching time to be independently optimised.
Vibration-resistant frequency synthesiser for a motorsport communications system. A hybrid DDS/PLL configuration allowed a 6.25kHz channel spacing to be achieved at UHF while maintaining the wide loop bandwidth required for suppression of vibration-induced phase noise. This work included analysis of raw vibration data gathered from field trials, to predict the effects of the vibration environment and ensure that the synthesiser would meet the phase noise specification under all conditions.
Low distortion signal switching and EMP protection networks for HF receiver system.
Low-cost, high-efficiency HPA for satcomms transmitter.
Prototype direct-sequence spread spectrum link with a miniature transmitter using a very high (100Mbps) chip rate.