RF Engines

RF Engines Limited of Newport, Isle of Wight, UK was founded in 1999. RF Engines (RFEL) develops (and patents as appropriate) products based on high performance, state-of-the-art, digital signal processing techniques that enable fast moving events or fleeting, hopping signals occurring in the radio spectrum to be identified and acquired in real-time for subsequent analysis. These IP (Intellectual Property) cores are then incorporated into an increasing number of RFEL's own products as well as their customers' products by implementing them into FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) mainly from Xilinx and Altera.

RFEL's products have a variety of applications, including in the design of efficient wireless communication (satellite and terrestrial) networks, test and measurement instrumentation, homeland security surveillance systems, bespoke wideband receivers/transceivers and in systems to detect signals from fast moving missiles or other military threats.

Privately owned, it has been profitable for several years and has been steadily growing year on year both in revenue terms and head count, employing over 20 highly qualified designers. RFEL's customers are mainly 'Tier 1' companies in each of its main markets, including Thales,[1] Qinetiq,[2] Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy (Germany),[3] UK Ministry of Defence,[4] Rheinmetall (Germany),[5] CEA (France),[6] Agilent (Switzerland) and LIG Nex1(Korea),[7] as well as many other major international clients.[8]

As of 2009 RFEL was bought by Rheinmetall and renamed to Rheinmetall Electronics UK.

RFEL is sponsoring students focusing on MSc degrees at the University of York with two special awards of £1,500 each that will be presented to graduates of the DSP course – one for 'excellence in theoretical signal processing' and secondly for 'excellence in signal processing design'.[9]

Products

RFEL's first patented design (called the PFT – Pipelined Frequency Transform) is a novel signal processing technique for monitoring the radio spectrum in fine detail, but with the ability to observe the radio spectrum in multiple resolutions simultaneously. The company has gone on to develop an extensive portfolio of patented and proprietary IP that is used to 'build' complex systems on FPGA designs.

Awards
  • Smart award in 2002[10]
  • Start up of the Year in 2004 European Electronics Industry Award[11]
  • Embedded System Innovation of the Year in 2006 Elektra European Electronic Awards[12]
  • South East Business Award 2008 for Innovation and Creativity[13]
  • Queen's Award for Innovation 2009[14][15]

References
  1. EETimes Europe – 404. Eetimes.eu. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  2. EETimes Europe – 404. Eetimes.eu. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  3. PC-based spectrometer powers latest radio telescope. Eetasia.com (24 February 2004). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  4. RF Engines wins government funding for DSP design work – 12/4/2002. Electronics Weekly (4 December 2002). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  5. Rheinmetall Defense Contracts RF Engines for an FPGA based Flexible Channeliser and Integrated Spectrum Analyser | Military Embedded Systems. Mil-embedded.com. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  6. EETimes Europe – 404. Eetimes.eu. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  7. RF Engines supply advanced designs for LIG Nex1’s new spectrum analyser –. Dsp-fpga.com (24 May 2011). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  8. RF Engines teams with Swiss firm – 23 November 2004. Electronics Weekly (23 November 2004). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  9. RFEL to sponsor DSP expertise courses. Dspdesignline.com. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  10. http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2002/02/20/24210/rf-engines-gets-award-for-signal-processing-research.htm/%5B%5D
  11. "RFEL News and Events". Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  12. "Chip Design » Embedded IP/FPGA Design Takes Elektra Award". www.chipdesignmag.com.
  13. "SEEDA | home". www.seeda.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008.
  14. "Electronics sector contributes to record year for Queen's Awards". Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
  15. "RF Engines wins a Queen's Award for innovation". 21 April 2009.
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