ERA Technology and Chelton Electrostatics (CEL) have developed leading-edge adaptive antenna control electronics to protect commercial and military satellite navigation receivers from interference or intentional 'jamming'.

With the current proliferation of satellite navigation receivers and their use in a diverse range of applications, these systems are increasingly susceptible to unwanted interference. This interference can reduce positioning accuracy or, in some circumstances, result in a complete loss of data.

Most sources of interference are terrestrial with significantly greater signal levels than navigation data received from a satellite. Although current navigation receivers incorporate protection measures to filter this out, there are still situations where this is ineffective defence. As a result, ERA and CEL have co-developed a Digital Antenna Control Unit (DACU) to demonstrate the use of adaptive array antenna technologies that solve this problem.

The DACU incorporates the latest digital receiver technology. The adaptive processor is based around state-of-the-art 1500 pin Field Programmable Gate Arrays operating at over 300 MHz. The DACU will be used in a MoD trial with an eleven element Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) to determine the effectiveness of the approach for a number of operational satellite navigation scenarios.

Dr Neil Williams, Technical Director at ERA, said: "This project clearly demonstrates Cobham's world-class electronics design and development capability and our ability to provide solutions to complex technical problems."

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About ERA Technology
ERA Technology works at the leading edge of many advanced technologies. The business was founded in 1920 and today provides specialist, high value-added, technology-based services including design and development, testing, assessment and expert advice.

The company has built an international reputation for technical expertise through constant innovation at the leading edge of technology. ERA's services reduce technical and commercial risk, improve the operational performance of engineering infrastructure assets, and enhance the competitiveness of products and systems.

ERA Technology is a Cobham plc company.