COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - ColoradoDesk -- Advanced Front-End Electronics for Sonobuoys

The Okika AN231E04 Field Programmable Analog Array (FPAA) device provides a highly flexible solution for front-end electronics in sonobuoys. It enables dynamically reconfigurable analog processing for hydrophone signal conditioning, feature extraction, and data stream optimization.

Results: enable smarter, more efficient sonobuoy front-end designs. With analog flexibility,  wide operating frequency range, and mission adaptability, the AN231E04 offers a generational leap in underwater sensing system design, especially in size- and power-constrained expendable sonobuoy platforms.

Key Advantages

• Configurable Analog Filters & Amplifiers – Tunable bandpass, low-pass, high-pass filters; variable gain amplifiers (VGAs) ideal for implementing automatic gain control (AGC) for passive sonar or time-varied gain (TVG) for active sonar.
• In-Mission Reconfiguration – Supports environmental adaptation and mission changes (e.g., shallow vs. deep water, passive vs. active).
• Analog Feature Extraction – Narrow band filtering, adaptive filtering, envelope detection, thresholding in analog domain.
• Smaller System Footprint – Consolidates multiple analog components into a single chip, freeing space and reducing weight.

Application in Sonobuoy Front-End

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1.     Hydrophone Signal Path

o   Input: Hydrophone array (DIFAR or omnidirectional)

o   Input amplifier optionally implements low-pass filter

o   AN231 FPAA functions:

§  Bandpass filtering (any frequency range in the window of 1 Hz – 400 kHz)

§  Programmable VGA for AGC / TVG

§  Notch filtering (e.g., 60 Hz noise, local radio interference, acoustic jammer rejection)

§  Pre-ADC conditioning

2.     Temperature Sensor Linearization

3.     Feature Extraction and Data Reduction

o   Narrow bandwidth filtering for active ping returns.

o   Analog envelope detection for threshold-based event triggering

o   Outputs: Simplified analog signal to ADC / digital processor / telemetry

4.     Control Interface

o   Controlled via microcontroller (SPI)

o   Onboard profiles for mission-specific configurations

o   Reconfigurable post-deployment if needed (e.g., via RF update)
https://www.okikadevices.com