New architecture of Direct RF Sampling for avionic systems applied to VOR and ILS

In the aerospace industry, there is an increased demand for a new kind of avionic architecture, in order to reduce cost, weight, number of components, certification, installation and maintenance complexity, while improving the security, compatibility and RF efficiency. The key solution to achieve this goal is to integrate multiple avionic systems, apply new signal processing and RF capabilities. A generalized and reconfigurable architecture of Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR) with integrated and modularised structure based on Direct RF Sampling (DRFS) and Software Defined Radio (SDR) is presented in this paper for avionic applications. The proposed architecture is composed of a DRFS digital receiver integrated within a SDR software modules. DRFS technology is adopted in the digital receiver, which consists of Pre-selection Filters and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) to provide flexible compatibility for diverse modulation modes and various RF/IF frequency bands. By employing the concept of DRFS/SDR, distinct procedures for different avionic purposes, such as Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) and Instrument Landing System (ILS), can be achieved in the same hardware platform. Notably, this proposed architecture has the potential to be reconfigured and improved in several ways without any hardware change to accommodate new features and signal capabilities. As per experimental validation phase, an MMR integrated system for VOR and ILS receivers has been designed and implemented. Test results have illustrated that the implementation feasibility of multi-mode DRFS avionic receivers is beneficial and efficient using the proposed architecture. Moreover, the benefits obtained from this new approach are not only covering miniaturization, lightweight, and low power consumption but is also promising to overreach the equivalent commercial systems in the future.