R. A. Wood Associates

R. A. Wood Associates is a consulting company specializing in providing innovative engineering solutions for today's industries, utilizing state-of-the-art computer technology and computer programming. Our specialty is in the field of RF and microwave systems design.

Our capabilities and services include, but are not limited to:

• Engineering consulting services
• Computer automated test system design and development
• Engineering prototypes and low to medium rate manufacturing
• RF and Microwave system design and analysis
• RF and Microwave circuit designs
• Subcontract specifications
• Wireless system design
• Custom software program development
• LabVIEW software development
• Lectures and training classes

• Introduction to R. A. Wood Associates
• R. A. Wood Associates Capabilites and Services

• R. A. Wood Associates is approved for ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (2nd Party) and ESD Control!
  3/5/2013 3:10pm

  Great News! R. A. Wood Associates has received approval by Lockheed Martin for ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (2nd Party survey), and Electrostatic Discharge Control (ESD). This puts us in a better position to deliver the highest quality products to our customers. Thanks to everyone involved who helped to make this become a reality! Bob Wood

   

• Equalizer Product Line Keeps Growing and Expanding!
  2/22/2013 1:53pm

  We keep improving and adding to our lineup of available equalizer products. We currently have over 155 low loss equalizers designs with more to come. Each design is unique with a range of choices of various slopes, along with a mixture of different frequency bands from 5 kHz to 20 GHz. We can provide a selection of male and female combinations of connectors on the inputs and outputs. We'll keep updating the equalizer main page as we get more designs completed, so feel free to stop by again, or ask us if we don't have what you are looking for.

• Available Now! SimpleCycle Crystal Oscillators
  6/4/2012 6:35pm

  We have officially released a new line of SimpleCycle crystal oscillators. These are temperature compenstated crystal osciillators in a very small package with +5 Volt DC in, and an SMA output connector. The key features include:

  Small package size: 1.06" X 0.92" X 0.37" 4 through-holes for mounting Easy connections: +5V DC in, SMA out Custom frequencies available from 40 MHz to 1.4 GHz Frequency accuracy at +25C: < +/-1 ppm Internally temperature compensated: < +/-1 ppm from -20C to +70C Aging: < +/-3 ppm first year, < +/-1 ppm/year thereafter Sine wave outputs (initially)

  We will be working to supply these with very quick turnarounds. For more information see our SimpleCycle Oscillator page, or contact us.

• High Dynamic Range Microwave Tuner Designed and in Production
  1/30/2012 11:44am

  We haven't posted in a while. It's because we've been crazy busy. Our newest product, the RCT0017 WB Tuner and Quad Converter, has been under development over the past 2 years, and is now available. We've designed this from the ground up to meet state of the art high input compression point, low phase noise, fast tuning speed, wide dynamic range, and wide instantaneous bandwidth requirements. A quick overview of the specifications: Frequency Coverage: 2-18 GHz First IF's: 2.2-3.8 GHz, 3.8-5.3 GHz, available simultaneously Second IF's: 4 outputs at 750 MHz, 375 MHz wide, providing 1.5 GHz instantaneous bandwidth across the First IF's Input 1 dB Compression Point: >+6 dBm Noise Figure: 21 dB Input Dynamic Range: -60 to +2 dBm Gain: 10 dB average Tuning Speed: <1 uSec Frequency Step Size: 375 MHz Phase Noise: -150 dBc/Hz @ 10-20 MHz Offset Form Factor: VME 6U 2 Slot Design Control and Status: VME A24 D32 Designed to follow an Low Noise Front End with Approximately 30 dB ENR Designed to drive 1 GHz Digitizers linearly up to +12 dBm A brief data sheet can be downloaded from this link

• New Quad Converter Designed and Delivered
  1/18/2012 6:37pm

  We designed and built for production a 4 channel Quad Converter. Our Quad Converter design features: 2 Input IF's from 2.2-5.3 GHz, available simultaneously Output IF's: 4 outputs at 750 MHz, 375 MHz wide, providing 1.5 GHz instantaneous bandwidth across the input IF's Control and Status: VME Interface A24 D32 and UART Serial Interface Designed to drive 4 1 GHz Digitizers linearly up to +12dBm 5 custom surface mount RF assemblies mounted to an aluminum plate Separate multilayer circuit board accommodates power conditioning, FPGA signals and VME interfacing Form Factor: VME 6U 1 Slot Design RF Connector Interface: SMA This is a very complex design with very high density surface mount assemblies. Surface mount assemblies are built using pick and place machines at a contract manufacturer. Automated RF test rack, fixtures and software has been designed at R. A. Wood Associates.

• RCT0017 Automated RF/Microwave Test Station Designed, Built, and In Service
  12/14/2011 7:30pm

  An automated RF/Microwave Test Station was designed and built by R. A. Wood Associates. The purpose was to provide automated test and device characterization to: Reduce manual test time Eliminate errors in recording of results Increase throughput Eliminate manual RF connections and DC connections in mid-test Provide automated test reports Save test results electronically in a database structure This automated test station reduced product test time from 24 hours of semi-automated testing down to approximately 2 hours. The RCT0017 Automated RF/Microwave Test Station includes: DAQ/Switch Unit Three programmable power supplies Signal Generator Spectrum Analyzer Custom RF Switch/DIO Box Table/Work Surface Rack Mount Computer Monitor LabVIEW Software utilities to support setting up the Spectrum Analyzer and Signal Generator, retrieving data from the Spectrum Analyzer, controlling the RF Switch/DIO Box and other measurement equipment in the Test Station Storage drawer

• LB RF Receiver Simulator Designed and Delivered
  11/14/2011 6:52pm

  A LB RF Receiver Simulator was designed to simulate the RF front end of a submarine periscope subsystem. The noise figure, gains, and dynamic ranges were designed to simulate the actual subsystem. The amplifiers were custom designed and equalized by R. A. Wood Associates to cover a wide bandwidth from ~DC to 3 GHz. A variable attenuator allowed the output noise floor to be adjusted in 1 dB steps.

• Celebrating the Successful Delivery of EDM WB Tuners/Quad Converters!
  10/10/2011 2:48pm

  We celebrated the successful delivery of EDM WB Tuners/Quad Converters with a Fall Cruise in the Adirondacks. Thanks to everybody who really worked hard to help us make a high quality product with on-time deliveries to our customer! From left to right: Sean, Bob, Nancy, Pat, Gerard, Al, Anne, Lorraine, Butch, Jim, Rusty, Mark, Dave, Bob, and Tim.

• 2nd Test Station Delivered to NAVSEA NSWC
  12/20/2010 6:52pm

  We designed and built a 2nd (different) Automated RF Test Station for NAVSEA NSWC, which was delivered to Crane, Indiana. This Test Station contains many state of the art features and equipment, including: Tektronix RSA6120A Real Time Spectrum Analyzer An R. A. Wood Associates custom designed Test Set Load Box, capable of handling 50W loads Rack mount computer, keyboard, and monitor with digital I/O, GPIB interfaces A PXI chassis with fiber optic interface, digital I/O, serial interfaces, temperature monitors, and GPIB interface LabVIEW Software utilities to support setting up the Real Time Spectrum Analyzer, retrieving information from the Real Time Spectrum Analyzer, controlling the Test Set Load Box, and controlling other measurement equipment in the Test Station The customer wanted this delivered before the holiday, so we rented a delivery truck and spent several days driving it out and setting it up for the customer at their facility. They were very pleased with our commitment to deliver the station on time!

• New Equalizer Designs added to our Product Line
  5/8/2010 10:42pm

  We've released some new equalizer designs in the past few months: Part Number Start Freq (GHz) Stop Freq (GHz) Full Band Slope REQ-M02-F0.5-18.0-S10.5 0.5 18.0 10.5 REQ-M02-F0.5-18.0-S9.0 0.5 18.0 9.0 REQ-M02-F0.5-18.0-S17.5 0.5 18.0 17.5 REQ-M02-F1.0-8.0-S3.0 1.0 8.0 3.0 REQ-M02-F1.0-8.0-S2.0 1.0 8.0 2.0 REQ-M02-F8.0-18.0-S3.0 8.0 18.0 3.0 REQ-M02-F0.1-1.0-S38.0 0.1 1.0 38.0 REQ-M02-F0.1-1.0-S15 0.1 1.0 15.0 For more information and test results, visit or "Equalizers on Demand" WWW page. If you don't see a design that fits your needs, please call us and we'll try to develop a design that meets your requirements. Thanks for all your support, equalizer users!

• Test Station Delivered to NAVSEA NSWC
  5/8/2010 2:48pm

  We delivered a Test Station to NAVSEA Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Indiana. The Test Station contains many state of the art features, including: The latest Agilent Network Analyzer (PNA-X Series) A 10-port Extension for measuring multi-port S-parameters An R. A. Wood Associates custom-designed RF Load Box/Chassis for testing high power RF devices Rack mount computer, keyboard, and monitor with digital I/O, GPIB interfaces A PXI chassis with fiber optic interface, digital I/O, serial interfaces, temperature monitors, and GPIB interfaces LabVIEW Software utilities to support setting up the Network Analyzer, retrieving S-parameters from the Network Analyzer, controlling the RF Load Box, and controlling other measurement equipment in the Test Station This was a very exciting project, and we really enjoyed working with our customer on this program. The complete project was delivered within 7 months of the order being placed. Great job everybody!

• mmW Equalizers Designed and Built for our Customer
  4/5/2010 10:55pm

  One of our customers had a need for a mmW equalizer to help offset a 7 dB negative slope across a 26.0 to 40.0 GHz band. We looked far and wide to see if there were any available components out there in the industry that we could buy as an off-the-shelf part, or have someone develop for us. We could not find any available parts. So we took on the task ourselves to design a mmW equalizer with a 7 dB positive gain slope. This is just another example of how we can break new ground to come up with designs that are needed by our customers when they are not otherwise available. The equalizer was installed in the system, and the 7 dB negative slope was flattened out. See before and after pictures below. Another exciting success story!
  System RF Path Gain before equalization (26-40 GHz):	System RF Path Gain after equalization (26-40 GHz):

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