FMC-518

The FMC-518 is a Quad Channel 500 MSPS 14-bit analog input FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC). Quad Channel Analog FMC provides low latency, fast, and efficient functionality for demanding applications such as Signal Intelligence (SIGINT), Electronic Warfare (EW), and RADAR (including beamforming). This is achieved through the density, speed, and resolution of the data delivered to the FPGA host through the FMC-518.

The FMC (VITA 57) specification allows I/O devices to be directly coupled to a host FPGA. This makes the FMC-518 an efficient digital receiver front end. On the FMC-518, the four ADC devices connect through the high bandwidth FMC connector to an FPGA-based host board which maximizes data throughput and decreases latency.

The FMC-518 from Curtiss Wright supports an onboard programmable sample clock generator as well as an external reference input. Multiple FMC-518 boards can be synchronized to improve the number of input channels through the use of trigger input/output signals directly under the control of the FPGA. The FPGA Mezzanine Card supports four analog inputs through 50Ohm MMCX-type front panel connectors. The analog inputs are single-ended and are coupled to Intersil ISLA214P50 ADCs using a Balun and AC coupling capacitor configuration to produce the broadband differential input required by the devices.

The FMC-518 can be used on platforms like CHAMP-WB or CHAMP-FX4. Both the rugged air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions of the Quad Channel Analog FMC are easily accessible and can be synchronized with multiple FMC-518 modules, ensuring coherent sampling for a scalable solution.