The defense market for embedded electronics designers continues to be a growth area. While increased use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology has lowered the cost and therefore the spending in unmanned systems, it is fueling more innovation, especially in small platforms.

In response to the growing nexus between physical risk (counterfeits) and cyber risk (infiltration of systems and exfiltration of data) the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has introduced a new policy adding security as a fundamental pillar of federal acquisition and supply chain risk management.

Move over, silicon: Defect-free boron arsenide offers far superior thermal conductivity than other semiconductors and metals, including silicon and copper.

As advanced network features and increasing speeds are added to next-generation rugged embedded switches, these products become even more useful for military applications by helping to reduce system size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) through a reduction of cabling and the use of Layer 3 switches for basic network routing duties.

In this Q&A with Torsten Mosis and Sebastian König of Elektrobit Automotive, the pair discuss mechanisms for detecting costly bugs in complex automotive software supply chains before they disrupt development projects.

Most organizations do not consider production test a top priority, but it is a necessity to prevent major quality issues in the products that represent the company brand in the hands of customers. The costs, however, can be significant and are often greatly misunderstood, especially when there’s no easy way to quantify the positive business impact of high-quality products or shortened time to market.

Electrical interfaces and connectors today face signal integrity challenges which weren’t a real concern 10 to 15 years ago. This is especially true for military systems such as radar, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) that continue to grow in complexity.