Business of the week: RF Engines

RF Engines Limited (RFEL) is an innovative electronics design and IP (Intellectual Property) company specialising in the development of high performance digital signal processing (DSP) techniques and the development of new products for the high-growth markets of wireless communications, government services and defence.

The company has developed an extensive range of patented DSP techniques, other specialised DSP designs, digital receivers, satellite communication receivers and spectrum analyser products. Variants of these exceptional products and solutions are sold through OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and also supplied directly by RFEL.

The company is continuing to grow rapidly, operates internationally, exports over 80% of its output and has won numerous awards for its technology. Its key patents are capable of high performance, multi-resolution real-time digital signal processing, and are able to detect all events in the radio spectrum as they happen, and miss nothing. These and other key technologies are incorporated in the company’s main products.
The designs are mostly, but not exclusively, based on the latest high-speed Field Programmable Gate array (FPGA) devices, and RFEL can provide either off-the-shelf or specialist system solutions for the most complex customer design requirements.

The company is based on the Isle of Wight in the UK, and offers a comprehensive range of products that include:

•  Signal processing designs sold as Intellectual Property (IP) Cores, suitable for both narrow and the widest band signal analysis applications,

•  complete turn-key, system-on-chip designs which are supplied on COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) or bespoke hardware as required,

•  comprehensive system and chip level consultancy services, to establish the most appropriate front-end architectures to meet the customer’s requirement, and

•  specialist digital transmitter/receiver products, and spectrum analyser products for the wireless communications, homeland security and military markets

The company has a prestigious list of customers, an extensive product development program and continuing high growth expectations.

A brief outline of RFEL’s business.

Key to the success of RFEL to date and to its future expansion is the level of demand for ‘smart electronics’, which more often than not, are based on real-time advanced signal processing techniques.

This is the area where RFEL excels. Product developments based on these techniques are fundamental for the latest defence systems, homeland security systems, and commercial and military wireless communications systems. RFEL has products applicable in each of these market areas.

The company has a number of major achievements:

•  a prestigious list of customers (including Nokia, BAE SYSTEMS, ITT Avionics, Thales, Anritsu etc)
•  a record of sustained high-growth
•  a highly successful business model
•  a record of prestigious international business and product awards, including the European Electronics Start-up of the Year Award
•  an extensive range of products
•  a significant product development programme
•  a highly qualified design team
•  quality accreditation to the ISO 9001:2000 standard

The company is now established as a world-leading designer and developer of high performance digital signal processing (dsp) architectures, and is currently working on designs that include:

•  real-time signal channelisation and filtering across wideband radio frequencies (RF), typically up to 4GHz bandwidth

•  flexible and efficient digital receiver architectures that are capable of detecting and characterising signals with a broad range of different modulation schemes and durations.

•  low-power, portable software definable radio transceivers for covert signal detection and suppression

•  multichannel (several thousand channel) satcoms receivers

•  spectrum analyser products capable of performing real-time spectral analysis of very wideband analog signals (with useable instantaneous analysis bandwidth of up to 900MHz)

The company’s unique blend of systems design skills coupled with high level FPGA implementation skills, mean that its products are often the most optimal solutions available in the market. The company’s designs excel in terms of their speed of operation, silicon size, power consumption and short delivery times, therefore it can offer a very cost effective and low risk route for product development.

In view of having developed such an extensive range of IP, system design skills and products, the company is confident in guaranteeing that design times can be radically reduced with consequent improvements in the time to market.

The company applies the most advanced modeling and simulation techniques at both the IP ‘core’ level and at the system level, and are therefore able to warrant the performance of all design outputs. A comprehensive Customer Support Service is also provided, that can be tailored to meet the needs of each customer project.

RFEL’s customers are from a broad range of markets (in reality from wherever high performance signal conditioning is required), but the focus of the company is concentrated on applications in:

•  Communications (both satellite communications and terrestrial wireless)

•  Test and Measurement Instrumentation – products for network testing, electronics design and Automatic Test Equipment (ATE)

•  Defence Systems, including signal intelligence, electronic warfare, and radar.

•  Government Services & Homeland Security

RFEL’s principal offices are located on the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England and in central London.

Brief History

RF Engines Ltd (RFEL) was established in 2000 and evolved from the UK-based Libra Design Associates Consultancy.

Libra had specialised in high performance digital signal processing designs for commercial and military products in the communications and instrumentation markets since the mid-1980′s, and were at the forefront in the design of carrier monitoring systems for Intelsat, Inmarsat, and other major satellite systems.

These monitoring systems still remain the system of choice for many major satellite earth station operators worldwide.

Building upon this experience and the development of novel techniques for wideband digital signal processing, RFEL was established to commercially exploit these patents, and to accelerate the development of additional advanced signal processing architectures and products incorporating these and other advanced technologies.

For more information about RF Engines please visit www.rfel.com