DIGITAL STORAGE OSCILLOSCOPE

The Task:

• Design a 2 channel 1 GHz Digital Storage Oscilloscope

The Catch:

• Must use ONLY off the shelf components and FPGAs. No custom silicon!
• Significant height restriction issues
• Final design must be small (1/2 height Vixi Chassis Card)
• Final design MUST meet BOM price Goal

The Solution:

• A2e did a research phase to gauge feasibility of the customers' goals. It was determined that it was possible but by no means guaranteed. At the customers request A2e did the design and met all the customers' functional requirements including meeting their cost goals. The final design was a 20 layer two sided PCB incorporating an Altera Stratix II FPGA, 1GHz ADC, and discrete components including sensitive analog circuitry. The product is in production today and A2e is working on the next generation version.

ARBITRARY WAVEFORM GENERATOR

The Task:

• Design a 8 channel Arbitrary Waveform Generator, Counter/Timer, Digitizer

The Catch:

• Must use ONLY off the shelf components and FPGAs. No custom silicon!
• Can only use one ASIC provided by the customer and not designed for this application
• Final design must be small (full height Vxi Chassis)
• Final design MUST meet BOM price goals

The Solution:

• A2e researched the project to determine feasibility of the customers' goals. It was determined that it was possible. At the customers request A2e did the design and met all the customers' functional requirements including meeting their cost goals. The final design was a 18 layer two sided PCB incorporating an Altera Stratix II FPGA and discrete components including sensitive analog circuitry. The product is in production today and A2e is working on the next generation version.

WORLDS LARGEST LED SIGN

The Task:

• Design the worlds largest LED based video sign (1/2 the size of a football field)

The Catch:

• Extreme cost sensitivity for individual LED light pixels
• The sign must support 60fps video
• The design must be ruggedized to withstand years of outdoor use
• The sign must automatically compensate for low light, temperature and aging for consistent colors
• The sign must be portable and be able to be broken apart to be moved
• The sign must be monitored and controlled via a wireless server system
• Two previous firms failed at the design

The Solution:

• A2e performed a research phase to determine feasibility of the customers' goals. It was determined that it was possible. At the customers request A2e did the design and met all the customers' functional requirements including meting their cost goals. The product is now in production.

BATTERY POWERED CHEMICAL WEAPON DETECTOR

The Task:

• Design a hand-held, battery powered chemical weapons detector

The Catch:

• Long battery life for a device that needs to generate 12KV plasma and have a power hungry DSP
• Extremely small form actor design required to fit 3 boards into a tight enclosure

The Solution:

• Design met battery life requirements by utilizing all power conservation modes available in the DSP and switching off unused electronics Boards fit within the required volume.  This was achieved by hand routing all boards to maximize component packing The product is now in production.