Keep your signals clear when choosing an IMA partner

As Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) issues drive more and more of today's platform design decisions, supply chain managers and engineering directors alike must see further into the future on the issues that will determine ultimate success. With IMAs, decisions around the microwave and digital transmit/receive functions in your block diagram are critical. Should you design separate TX and RX modules, or one transceiver? Where should the crossover between the analog and digital transmission be? Many of those issues will be in the hands of your IMA partner, who must apply a unique combination of in-depth experience and the ability to achieve creative solutions for new design requirements. To ensure you’re setting yourself up for success, we’ve composed this blog and pursuant brief for additional information.

Have they have asked the right questions?

Your IMA partner needs to know you as much as you need to know them. They need to understand your overall system design philosophy, not just the technical specifications of their part of the project.

Does the potential partner have a robust center of excellence for design, test, and assembly?

Have they demonstrated a convincing commitment to operational excellence at-large? The development of an integrated assembly typically requires a number of different technologies, some of which may require a company to stretch beyond its historic capabilities. The ability to accomplish these new engineering tasks is a measure of a company’s commitment to innovation and quality.

Is this a mixed signal subsystem?

Don’t assume that a potential partner with extensive analog experience can simply add on the digital functions, or vice versa. Design/performance tradeoffs such as the frequency conversion scheme and the point in the signal chain where analog-to-digital conversion is implemented are best decided by a team that has collaborated before and has in-house expertise in both core disciplines.

To download this information and learn more on picking the right IMA partner get our formatted Tech Brief.

To learn more about Smiths Interconnect's complete IMA capability, visit: www.smithsinterconnect.com