In Brief

Sept. 1, 2000
Raytheon readies new class of micro infrared cameras; MagneTek offers digitally enhanced motor-control device; Lockheed Martin to upgrade computers on Navy S-3B carrier-based jet; and more ...

Raytheon readies new class of micro infrared cameras

Engineers at the Raytheon Commercial Infrared division in Dallas created low-power micro infrared cameras — otherwise known as MIRCs — that offer to lower costs and improve portability of thermal imaging devices, company officials say. Raytheon officials say prototype MIRCs will be available this fall. MIRCs, which can operate without thermoelectric cooling, have 120-by-160-pixel focal-plane arrays of amorphous-silicon microbolometers and video-processing circuitry based on the same high-volume semiconductor devices used in cell phones, Raytheon officials say. For more information contact Raytheon Commercial Infrared by phone at 972-344-4000, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.raytheoninfrared.com/. — J.K.

MagneTek offers digitally enhanced motor-control device

Engineers at MagneTek Inc. developed a new series of digital motor speed controls based on a standard A/C variable-frequency motor drive with a computer chip that "remembers" many different motion-control routines. The user configures the drive for a specific application by simply keying in the code for the routine required. The new drives are pre-programmed at MagneTek's advanced development center in New Berlin, Wis. The "beta" version of the drive is programmed for winding applications, yet company engineers are building a library of software-based algorithms common to different motion-control applications, MagneTek officials say. This will enable users to specify standard drives for applications that previously required custom-engineered drives or extensive customer programming, company officials say. For more information contact MagneTek by phone at 615-316-5100, by fax at 615-316-5192, by post at 26 Century Blvd., Suite 600, Nashville, Tenn. 37214, by e-mail at [email protected], or on the World Wide Web at http://www.magnetek.com/. — J.K.

Lockheed Martin to upgrade computers on Navy S-3B carrier-based jet

Engineers from the Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems division in Eagan, Minn., are providing 17 AN/AYK-23 data processing sets for the U.S. Navy S-3B carrier-based jet aircraft. The AN/AYK-23 is a VME-based multi-processor system with re-engineered mission software. Lockheed Martin is doing the work under terms of a $7 million contract awarded May 30 from the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. Lockheed Martin engineers also are upgrading the computer's mission software to the Ada programming language for the AN/AYK-23, including 800,000 source lines of code of application-specific Ada. For more information contact Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Eagan by phone at 651-456-2222, by post at 3333 Pilot Knob Road, Eagan, Minn. 55121, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.lmco.com/minn/. — J.K.

Aeroflex offers new monolithic transceiver for avionics

Designers at Aeroflex Circuit Technology in Plainview, N.Y., developed the ACT 4468D next-generation dielectrically isolated monolithic transceiver that complies with MIL-STD-1553/1760 data bus requirements. The ACT 4468D, which measures 0.3 by 1 inch, comes in one the smallest-available packages, lowest standby power consumption, and has one-power-supply operation, Aeroflex officials claim. Features include low-power dissipation at full-output power, a 5-volt power supply, and current source output. The dual-channel devices perform the front-end analog function of inputting and outputting data through a transformer to a MIL-STD-1553/1760 data bus. For more information contact Aeroflex by phone at 516-694-6700, by fax at 516-694-6715, by post at 35 South Service Road, Plainview, N.Y. 11803, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.aeroflex.com/. — J.K.

Condor chooses Comtech Telecommunications for solid state amplifiers

Engineers from Comtech Telecommunications Corp. in Melville, N.Y., are producing solid state amplifiers for the Shortstop Electronic Protection System — otherwise known as the SEPS — from Condor Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Condor awarded Comtach a $1.7 million follow-on contract for the job in June. It is the third contract from a 1998 joint development agreement between Condor and Comtech. Shortstop is a portable system that uses an electronic signal that causes mortars artillery shells, and rockets to explode prematurely. For more information contact Comtech by phone at 516-777-8900, by fax at 516-777-8877, by post at 105 Baylis Road, Melville, N.Y. 11747, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.comtechtel.com/. — J.K.

Lockheed Martin to bid Cisco Systems technology for U.S. government jobs

Leaders of Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., are incorporating commercial technology from Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif., into Lockheed Martin's U.S. government bids. Under an alliance agreement, officials of Cisco Systems and Lockheed Martin will work together to identify and pursue new federal business in systems integration and information technology, officials say. Lockheed Martin leaders say they will concentrate on deploying Cisco technologies to support command and control, security, network interconnectivity, wide area network, network management, and voice communications. Company executives say they will immediately apply Cisco technologies to their competition to design the U.S. Navy's next-generation land-attack destroyer, the DD 21. Lockheed Martin is part of the DD 21 Blue Team. For more information use the World Wide Web to contact Lockheed Martin at http://www.lmco.com/, or Cisco Systems at http://www.cisco.com/. — J.K.

Navy's newest aircraft carrier to use Windows 2000

Officials of the Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems division in Moorestown, N.J., are using the Windows 2000 operating system for the warfare systems aboard the future CVN 77 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Microsoft Federal Systems in Washington is joining the integrated warfare systems team supporting the design and development of the CVN 77, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Newport News Shipbuilding is providing to the U.S. Navy. Microsoft Federal Systems will lead the information infrastructure development activity and define the architecture for information exchange as part of the warfare systems integration effort for CVN 77. Microsoft will help design the ship's information technology architecture based on the company's Windows 2000 operating system. — J.K.

Teledyne Relays offers solid-state relay for military applications

Leaders of Teledyne Relays in Hawthorne, Calif., are offering their SR75-3 solid state relay for military and aerospace applications. The new device is a 400-volt, 0.5-amp DC short-circuit-protected, plastic dual-in-line-package relay that prevents damage to system components, assemblies, and wiring; and can operate AC using a bridge rectifier. The SR75-3 has a power field effect transistor switch that is protected against overload and short circuit currents, company officials say. This protects against turn-on short circuits and shorts from overheating while conducting loads up to rated or for long-term overload currents above rated. For more product information contact Teledyne Relays by phone at 323-777-0077, by post at 12525 Daphne Ave., Hawthorne, Calif. 90250, or on the World Wide Web at www.teledynerelays.com/. — J.K.

National Semiconductor offers tiny digital temperature sensor

A digital temperature sensor about the size of a speck of lint is the latest offering from engineers at National Semiconductor Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif. The LM74 is a 1.6-by-1.6-millimeter surface-mount micro surface-mount device, which National Semiconductor officials claim is one of the world's smallest temperature sensors for high-precision temperature measurement in test and measurement equipment, disk drives, wireless phones, and other microprocessor/microcontroller-based applications. The device has a 12-bit plus sign temperature resolution of 0.0625 degrees Celsius per least significant bit, and is compatible with SPI and Microwire when it operates over a temperature range of -40 C to 125 C. For more information contact the National Semiconductor Design Support Group by phone at 800-272-9959, by post at 2900 Semiconductor Drive, P.O. Box 58090,Santa Clara, Calif. 95052, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM74.html. — J.K.

QuickLogic offers customizable Fibre Channel devices

Leaders of QuickLogic Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif., announced a family of customizable high-speed Fibre Channel devices called QuickFCO. These devices are for engineers who must customize their designs to the standard Fibre Channel protocol, involving applications such as proprietary storage area networks and RAID architectures, as well as customization for any gigabit serial transmissions, QuickLogic officials say. QuickFCO offers throughput as fast as 2.5 gigabits per second in combination with a platform of configurable SRAM/FIFOs and 32,000 system gates of programmable logic, based on the Finisar Corp. gigabit-rate technology, company officials claim. QuickFC products provide an integrated configurable Fibre Channel encoder/decoder interface combined with 32,000 system gates of programmable logic. They include 22 blocks (25,344 bits) of dual-port RAM that designers can configure as RAM, ROM, or FIFOs. For more information contact QuickLogic by phone at 408-990-4000, by fax at 408-990-4040, by post at 1277 Orleans Drive, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94089, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.quicklogic.com/. — J.K.

GSA chooses five companies for $1.5 billion Smart ID Card project

Leaders of the U.S. General Services Administration are awarding contracts to five companies to develop the government-wide Smart Access Common ID card. The contracts, worth as much as $1.5 billion over 10 years, are going to KPMG Consulting LLC of McLean, Va.; PRC Inc. of Reston, Va.; Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) of Herndon, Va.; 3-G International, Inc. (3GI) of Springfield, Va.; and Logicon, Inc. of Falls Church, Va. The smart card can provide features such as basic visual identification and authentication, physical and logical access control. For more information contact the GSA's Stephen Berg by phone at 202-501-1568, or Mickey Femino at 202 501-1619, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.fedcac.gsa.gov/smartcard.htm. — J.K.

ITCN wins Air Force research contract to pinpoint aircraft failures

ITCN of Miamisburg, Ohio, won a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop technology for identifying imminent failures in aircraft and system components. The goal is to use software execution trends and time-correlated system data to provide diagnostics for current and future U.S. Department of Defense maintenance and sustainability programs. ITCN manufactures of test and monitoring products for embedded systems ranging from stand-alone systems to individual plug-in cards for backplanes such as VME. For more information contact ITCN by phone at 800-439-4039, by fax at 937-439-9173, by e-mail at [email protected], by post at 8571 Gander Creek Drive, Miamisburg, Ohio 45342, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.itcninc.com/. — J.K.

Lockheed Martin uses Litton rad-hard power unit on IMAGE spacecraft

Spacecraft designers at Lockheed Martin Corp. in Sunnyvale, Calif., are using a new Litton radiation-hardened power distribution unit in the NASA Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft. Officials of the Litton Industries Advanced Systems division in College Park, Md., say their rad-hard power device is aboard the IMAGE spacecraft, which launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on March 25. The IMAGE Power Distribution Unit (PDU) is based on a new generation of Litton 250-Watt-to-20-kilowatt space power systems. The Litton devices help control the spacecraft's solar array output, battery charging, and power distribution to the IMAGE spacecraft and science payload. For more information contact Litton by phone at 818-598-5000, by fax at 818-598-5940, by post at 21240 Burbank Blvd., Woodland Hills, Calif. 91367, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.littoncorp.com/. — J.K.

Wind River offers new operating system, development environment

Leaders of Wind River Systems in Alameda, Calif., are releasing their pSOSystem real-time operating system and its supporting pRISM+ software-engineering environment. The pSOSystem 3.0 real-time operating system includes memory protection to isolate tasks; the ability to trap stack memory overrun conditions; a programmable resource-monitor; logging for errors during runtime; Posix extensions; and task-level error and exception handling. The Java-based pRISM+ 3.0 environment, meanwhile, has an open architecture that enables users to launch external tools from the desktop, company officials say. For more information contact Wind River by phone at 510-748-4100, by fax at 510-749-2010, e-mail at [email protected], by post at 500 Wind River Way, Alameda, Calif. 94501, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.windriversystems.com/. — J.K.

Lockheed Martin demonstrates open-systems on Joint Strike Fighter avionics

The Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) team is using an "open systems architecture" (OSA) approach based on commercial standards to solve the chronic problem of computer chip obsolescence on the JSF program. Team members are applying this new approach across the entire air vehicle — particularly in the JSF's flight-critical vehicle management computer — Lockheed Martin officials say. The Lockheed Martin team developed a life-cycle technology management approach. It focuses on open systems and "evolutionary technology refreshment" that achieves software portability within an avionics box and throughout the entire aircraft, company officials explain. This approach enables designers to change out boards or modules as preferred spares on an attrition basis, with no influence to form, fit, or function. — J.K.

Space radiation effects conference set for July

The IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) will be July 24-28, 2000 at the Silver Legacy Resort Hotel in Reno, Nev. This annual meeting of engineers and scientists presents techniques for enhancing the performance of microelectronic devices and circuits in radiation environments such as spacecraft. The majority of research papers presented at NSREC are published in the December issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. Sessions topics include photonic devices with complex and multiple failure modes, radiation effects testing of mixed-signal microelectronics, and radiation effects testing of programmable logic devices. To register, or for more information, contact NSREC by phone at 303-770-2055, by fax at 303-741-5890, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.nsrec.com/.

DRS to provide Tempest UltraSPARC workstations to U.S. government

The DRS Technologies Inc. Advanced Programs unit in Columbia, Md., won a $2.8 million U.S. government contract to provide third-generation Tempest UltraSPARC computer workstations and peripherals for worldwide deployment. The contract includes $5.6 million in options. DRS will provide workstations and servers with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components designed for unique government applications. The rack-mounted workstations will include the company's color 18.1-inch flat panel displays with 1,280 by 1024-pixel resolution, and will be expandable to 72 gigabytes of data storage. The servers will use as many as four 450 MHz UltraSPARC processors with as much as 432 gigabytes of removable storage. For more information contact DRS on the World Wide Web at http://www.drs.com/. — J.K.

FGM to conduct command and control research

Scientists at FGM Inc. of Dulles, Va., are investigating advanced simulation, human-systems interfaces, and integration technologies for next-generation command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems and command centers. The FGM specialists are doing the work under a $13.8 million contract from the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego. Work will be completed by April 2005. FGM develops custom software applications, systems software, and provides systems integration services. For more information contact FGM on the World Wide Web at http://www.fgm.com/. — J.K.

Northrop Grumman to supply infrared targeting pods

Engineers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Defense Systems Division in Rolling Meadows, Ill., are providing 15 Low Altitude Infrared Targeting and Navigating II pods for the U.S. Marine Corps Boeing AV-8B jump jet, as well as for AV-8B jets in Italy and Spain. They are doing the work under a $24.5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The work, which will be at Northrop Grumman in Rolling Meadows, and at the Rafael Missile Division in Haifa, Israel, will be finished in March 2002. For more information contact Northrop Grumman on the World Wide Web at http://www.northgrum.com/. — J.K.

Intersil partners with M.S. Kennedy in power hybrid microcircuits

PALM BAY, Fla. — Intersil Corp. of Palm Bay, Fla., is teaming with M.S. Kennedy Corp. of Cicero, N.Y., to develop a family of DC-DC converters for satellite-based broadband communications. The agreement calls for M.S. Kennedy to assemble, screen, and test Intersil's Star*Power space qualified metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) and power management integrated circuits, collectively known as Intersil's Star*Power family. "The alliance enables Intersil to participate in the next level of integration, where multiple devices are included in a single unit," says Andy Khayat, product marketing manager at Intersil. M.S. Kennedy is certified to Class K and Class H of MIL-PRF-38534 and ISO-9001 by the Defense Supply Center, Columbus. — J.K.

Lockheed Martin to install PowerPC computer aboard B-52H bombers

Engineers at the Lockheed Martin Electronics Platform Integration division in Owego, N.Y., are set to upgrade the mission computers aboard the U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52H long-range jet bomber. The upgrade revolves around the Lockheed Martin SP-103A single-board computer, which is based on the Motorola PowerPC 603e/604e/740 microprocessor. The project is to install new B-52H avionics control unit mission computers aboard 27 aircraft. The new computer not only will increase the power and memory of the B-52H avionics unit by 50 times, but it also will reduce its number of circuit cards from 21 to three, according to a Lockheed Martin announcement. The new mission computers will replace the B-52H's current AP-101C computers, and will perform navigation, weapons delivery, controls, and displays management. The project also calls for Lockheed Martin designers to install power supplies, Fibre Channel PCI mezzanine card, and input/output modules. For more information contact Lockheed Martin-Owego on the World Wide Web at http://www.owego.com/.

Raytheon to provide special-operations radios

Raytheon Co. of Fort Wayne, Ind., won a four-year contract to provide Multi-Band Multi-Mission Radio (MMBMR) systems based on Raytheon's PSC-5D radio to the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Raytheon will provide two vehicular and 227 manpack systems. The MBMMR replaces several single-band radio systems currently used to communicate on different networks and includes the radio capabilities of Have Quick II, the improved Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS SIP), an enhanced key management system, 30 to 512 MHz frequency coverage, and high-speed, line-of-site data transmission. Raytheon's team includes GroupTech of Tampa, Fla.; and ViaSat of Carlsbad, Calif. — J.K.

II-VI to supply NASA with radiation detectors

II-VI Inc. in Saxonburg, Pa., won a $700,000 contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to provide 22,000 cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) radiation detectors for the new SWIFT research satellite. NASA following completion of the initial contract may award additional quantities of 18,000 and 5,000 detectors. II-VI manufactures optical and electro-optical components, devices and materials for infrared, near-infrared, visible light, x-ray, and gamma-ray instrumentation. The Company's infrared products are used primarily in high- power CO2 (carbon dioxide) lasers. For more information contact Jim Martinelli, II-VI's treasurer and chief financial officer by phone at 724-352-4455, by e-mail at [email protected], or on the World Wide Web at http://www.ii-vi.com/. — J.K.

MultiGen-Paradigm offers expanded sensor simulation suite

MultiGen-Paradigm Inc. of San Jose, Calif., is introducing a correlated sensor suite on Windows NT. Company officials say the tools SensorVision, SensorWorks, RadarWorks, TMM, and MAT can help users build an application that simultaneously renders correlated out-the-window, radar, night-vision, and infrared visuals using one material-classified database. SensorVision and Vega Marine also can help produce similar maritime simulation applications. The suite runs on IRIX and Windows NT. SensorVision simulates electro-optical and infrared visuals including night-vision, medium- and long-wave infrared, and monochrome video devices. SensorWorks simulates sensor effects for night-vision goggles and infrared sensors, including effects such as NVG halos/blooming, persistence, fixed-pattern and random temporal noise, blurring, saturation, and sampling artifacts. RadarWorks simulates imaging radar systems such as synthetic aperture radar, real-beam ground mapping, and Doppler beam sharpening. For more information contact MultiGen-Paradigm on the World Wide Web at http://www.multigen-paradigm.com/. — J.K.

Engineered Support to provide Navy avionics testing system

Engineered Support Systems Inc. in St. Louis won a $9.2 million order from the U.S. Navy to build aircraft avionics testing subsystems for the Consolidated Automated Support Systems (CASS). Engineered Support will build 31 high-power device test systems. These systems use liquid cooling to test high-power radio frequency transmitters, high-voltage power supplies, and other components of radar and electronic warfare systems for the AV-8B, EA-6B, F-14, F/A-18, and S-3 aircraft. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps will deploy the HPOC system on aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, as well as in depots and flight training facilities. — J.K.

Vicor offers COTS DC-DC converters for military use

Designers at Vicor Corp. of Andover, Mass., are introducing a low-operating-temperature second-generation DC-DC converter. The new M-Grade devices are for military temperature ranges of -55 to 100 degrees Celsius. The Vicor M-Grade devices meet the MIL-I-45208 quality standard. The Vicor second-generation DC-DC converters, come in 48-volt, 300-volt, and 375-volt versions. Each device has three packaging choices — MaxiMod, MiniMod, and MicroMod. For more information, contact Vicor Corp. by phone at 978-470-2900, by fax at 978-475-6715, by post at 25 Frontage Road, Andover, Mass. 01810, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.vicr.com/.— J.K.

Lockheed Martin to build new Navy acoustic processor

Systems engineers at the Lockheed Martin Federal Systems division in Owego, N.Y., are designing a new acoustic processor subsystem for the prototype SH-60R multi-mission helicopter. The processor, which is to be based on the PowerPC 603e/604e/740 microprocessor family, represents a shift from the special-purpose, custom-designed processors that Navy operators previously used for airborne sonar signal processing. The new processor will give the U.S. Navy the ability to upgrade sonar-processing capability to accommodate new technology without extensive reprogramming. The Lockheed Martin SP-103-A single-board computer also is the basis of the SH-60R multi-mission helicopter's flight and mission computers. — J.K.

Green Hills named MIPS preferred tools provider

Leaders of Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara, Calif., are teaming with MIPS Technologies Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., to port the Green Hills Multi 2000 software development environment to the new MIPS32 Jade and MIPS64 5Kc Opal 32- and 64-bit processor cores. In turn, MIPS will introduce Green Hills as a "MIPS Technologies preferred tools provider." The Multi 2000 environment, together with the Green Hills C, C++, EC++, and Ada 95 compilers, will automate all aspects of embedded software development for MIPS processors. For more information, contact Green Hills by phone at 805-965-6044, by fax at 805-965-6343, by post at 30 West Sola St., Santa Barbara, Calif. 93101, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.ghs.com/. — J.K.

Boeing emphasizes quality in meeting with suppliers

Leaders of the Boeing space transportation businesses unit are requiring their suppliers of flight-critical hardware to implement the same management and configuration control disciplines that Boeing uses as vehicle integrator. Boeing officials made the announcement in a meeting with their top 150 suppliers to discuss the results of the Boeing Mission Assurance Review (BMAR) and its findings in terms of supplier expectations. Boeing chartered the BMAR to review the company's expendable launch vehicle programs and make recommendations to improve mission success. The review board recommended that Boeing increase its focus on launch vehicle quality in every phase, from design through manufacturing to operations, in the belief that a strong quality-first focus will lead to increased reliability at reduced cost. From the BMAR recommendations, Boeing established a mandatory certification program for all suppliers of flight-critical launch vehicle hardware. Suppliers are required to complete the certification process by December 31, 2000. For more information contact Boeing on the World Wide Web at http://www.boeing.com/. — J.K.

TRW tests take another step toward deploying a space-based laser

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. — Engineers at the TRW Inc. Systems & Information Technology division in Redondo Beach, Calif., have demonstrated a 25 percent increase in the output power of the Alpha high-energy laser, company officials say. The test, backed by the U.S. Air Force and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), was a step toward an experimental, space-based Air Force missile defense system that employs a cylindrical, hydrogen-fluoride chemical laser, TRW officials say. Building the space-based laser is a team of TRW, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. For more information contact TRW on the World Wide Web at http://www.trw.com/.

Boeing tests F-22 software aboard flying laboratory

SEATTLE — Engineers from Boeing in Seattle began flight testing an updated F-22 avionics software package called Block 3S April 24 on the company's 757 test bed aircraft. The tests are the first airborne evaluation of the F-22's planned radar and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as the jet's sensors for communications, navigation, and identification. To date, F-22 avionics software has undergone more than 15,000 hours of testing in the laboratory and more than 400 hours on the test bed aircraft. The F-22 Raptor is the future U.S. Air Force front-line air-superiority jet fighter. Boeing is teaming with Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney to build the F-22. Boeing supplies the F-22's wings, aft fuselage, radar, mission software, avionics integration and testing, as well as training and life-support systems. For more information contact Boeing on the World Wide Web at http://www.boeing.com/.

California Microwave to upgrade RC-7B reconnaissance avionics

BELCAMP, Md. — Designers at California Microwave Systems in Belcamp, Md., are set to provide new airborne sensors for three U.S. Army RC-7B reconnaissance aircraft under a $3 million U.S. Army contact. California Microwave, a unit of Northrop Grumman Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector in Baltimore, is to finish modifying the aircraft next September. The RC-7B is a modified De Havilland DHC-7 aircraft equipped with imagery, radar, communications intelligence, data links, and communications systems. The aircraft will receive the Wescam M-20 forward-looking infrared sensor and the wideband tactical common data link. These upgrades will enable the aircraft crew to transmit synthetic aperture radar images in real time. For more information contact California Microwave on the World Wide Web at http://www.calmw.com/.

Litton uses "camera-on-a-chip" technology for new night-vision sensor

GARLAND, Texas — Scientists at the Litton Industries Electro-Optical Systems Division in Garland, Texas, are using advanced "camera-on-a-chip" technology into the company's newest image intensifiers. This work, which Litton is doing under contract to the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, is to help develop small, inexpensive, low-power, low-light night-vision cameras. Litton experts are using CMOS "camera-on-a-chip" technology on the project from Sarnoff Corp. of Princeton, N.J. Managers say the program should be able to support future broad-based common module technology insertion. Its low power requirements, light weight and compact design should be suitable for aerial and ground based applications such as goggles and observation devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, the Driver's Viewer Enhanced program, and future driving devices. For more information contact Litton on the World Wide Web at www.litton.com/.

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