NASHUA, N.H., 14 Nov. 2016.Military & Aerospace Electronics and Intelligent Aerospace are announcing their 2016 Technology Innovation Awards to recognize companies offering substantial military, aerospace, and avionics design solutions for 2016.
Awards are in three tiers, ranging from the highest platinum awards, to the gold awards, and finally to the silver awards, based on the recommendations of an independent panel of industry judges.
Platinum award winners
The OmniView eye-tracking system from ISCAN Inc. in Woburn, Mass., is a binocular real-time head-mounted eye-tracking system for aircraft pilots or military ground vehicle drivers. It is an indicator for human factors assessment in military training to overcome limits to conventional eye trackers for military and avionics human factors and training applications. It tracks the user's eye position and overlays a point of gaze cursor that shows precisely where the user is looking. It is designed to work under real flight or vehicle operating conditions.
VeroVision from ChemImage Sensor Systems in Pittsburgh is a portable short-wave infrared hyperspectral imaging sensor for real-time, standoff detection capability for military, public safety, ordnance disposal, and law enforcement to screen for chemicals, explosives, and illegal drugs. It gives users rapid access to visual information to improve situational awareness and reduce response time to threats packaged in bulk or in surface residues.
The NiCorAl coating for rugged circular push-pull connectors from LEMO SA in Ecublens, Switzerland, is a green alternative to cadmium and chrome VI coatings for aluminum-body connectors that must operate in harsh conditions such as salt spray. It satisfies guidelines of RoHS 2 and REACh 2017 without compromising corrosion resistance. Using reduced levels of chemicals, it offers 500 hours of corrosion resistance without using Chrome 6 in the process.
The VXWORKS 653 3.0 safety-critical software from Wind River Systems in Alameda, Calif.,is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform for delivering safety-critical integrated modular avionics. VxWorks 653 3.0 Multi-core Edition complies with ARINC specification 653, providing partitioning in time and space to ensure fault containment, and enabling reduced SWaP, as well as a reduced bill of materials (BOM) on advanced aircraft. It uses a certifiable hypervisor layer to take advantage of multicore hardware that until now has not been approved for safety-critical systems.
The V-SHIELD epoxy encapsulated packaging for rugged DC-DC converters from VPT Inc. in Bothell, Wash., features an epoxy encapsulated packaging design called V-SHIELD that resists chemical, solvent and salt environments and is compatible with high-volume manufacturing processes including wave solder, cleaning solvents, high-pressure sprays and aqueous wash processes. V-SHIELD allows for efficient thermal performance because it is encapsulated in a thermally conductive epoxy that creates a heat path through either side of the package.
Gold award winners
The Masterclock Timing and Countdown System from Carl F Otto & Masterclock Inc. in Merritt Island, Fla., provides remote computer control of clocks and displays selection of event counts. It uses accurate real clocks instead of passive displays, as well as Ethernet and Masterclock software tools to provide switching, distribution, monitoring and control of almost an unlimited number of clocks and event counts.
The M60 Upgrade Kit from the Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solutions Division in Ashburn, Va., provides an innovative and affordable way to upgrade legacy M60 main battle tanks with modern electro-mechanical turret drive systems. It uses electro-mechanical technologies to enhance the performance of legacy hydraulic and hybrid turret-drive-based battle tanks.
The CertSAFE software engineering tool from CERTON in Melbourne, Fla., is a model-based development and verification tool that bridges the gap between systems and software teams by enabling rapid prototyping with validated requirements to ensure the correct systems are being built before the need to have hardware and target software. CertSAFE ensures cohesion between the system, software, and verification teams.
The ISL71840/41SEH radiation-hardened multiplexers from Intersil Corp. in Milpitas, Calif., are 30-volt 16-channel multiplexers that act as drop-in replacements for Intersil’s HS9-1840ARH, which has been aboard many satellite and space exploration missions, including NASA’s recent Orion spacecraft flight test. The Intersil ISL71840/41SEH offers ESD protection and high signal chain accuracy and timing performance for next-generation satellites, manned spacecraft, and deep-space exploration.
The RPC24 Raid Array data storage system from Phoenix International Systems in Orange, Calif.supports TCG compliant and FIPS 140-2 certified AES 256 encryption as well as instant secure erase when configured with solid-state disks and hard disk drives with these capabilities. Data security is a key component to any mass storage application and has been brought to the general public’s awareness. For deployed military applications, data security has always been a concern and this data storage device helps make data-at-rest security more efficient and affordable.
The Intelligent Active Connector (IAC) from LEMO SA in Ecublens, Switzerland is helps maintain secure connections in military, aerospace, medical, and other mission- and life-critical applications. It prevents unauthorized use, hazardous mismatching, and counterfeiting. A microchip can be featured in the plug connector to ensure it can be fitted only to a specific set of receptacles to guard against counterfeit.
The RES 3000 rugged Ethernet switches for military vetronics from Abaco Systems in Huntsville, Ala., features a modular design that provides as many as 24 ports of Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and four ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet for vetronics and other rugged military applications. The RES3000 products are smaller, lighter, and less costly than other rugged layer 2/3 Ethernet switches, while offering a high port-count protocol, security, and compliance with the latest Ethernet standards and initiatives such as VICTORY.
Silver award winners
Rounding out the 2016 Innovation Awards, the silver winners are the Ensemble LDS6526 Server Blade from Mercury Systems Inc. in Chelmsford, Mass.; The Cobalt model 71664 200 MHz 16-bit A/D converter with programmable digital down converter based on the Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA from Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J.; 3U CompactPCI SIU35 sensor interface unit with the Custom-on-Standard architecture (COSA) from North Atlantic Industries in Bohemia, N.Y.; the Compact Rugged Avionics Interface Computer from Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y.; the UMPIRE44 design and development tool form Foresite Inc. in Kokomo, Ind.; and the LOGIC Component Technology and motor control from Applied Avionics Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas.
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