IFEN Officially Launches SX3 Software Receiver

Photo: IFEN

IFEN has launched the SX3 receiver. The company’s previous scientific software receiver, the SX‐NSR, was subject to major upgrades, while the respective hardware front-end was completely redesigned. Together, they build the new SX3 GNSS software receiver.

IFEN’s most important innovation of the year was introduced at the ION GNSS+ Conference September 9-12 in Tampa, Florida.

One of the SX3’s key features is four RF frequency bands, which can be split into a maximum of eight sub-bands per unit. This enhances the bandwidth to a full 55 MHz per RF band, offering additional signal power, especially in E5 band. The new USB 3.0 port empowers a unrivaled data transfer rate that makes a maximal bit-quantization of up to 8-bit possible — for every single stream.

The additional power is compressed into a significantly smaller and lighter hardware chassis than before. Among other options, a dual antenna-input feature can be ordered as well as an OXCO clock. (Standard equipment of the SX3 GNSS software receiver is a precise temperature-controlled oscillator.)

The proofed difference correlator notably ruggedizes acquisition and tracking of any navigation satellite signals. Polyfit tracking reduces measurement noise through averaging (such as code/carrier measurements). (See “Innovation: Software GNSS Receiver.”) Accordingly, vector tracking improves the tracking of weak signals in degraded environments and the reacquisition of “lost” satellites.

Just like its predecessor, it is also able to act as a framework for a customer’s own signal processing algorithms. “Customers can fully concentrate on their applications instead of dealing with potentially obscure code when using open source,” said Product Manager Bernhard Riedl. “Our professional support is specifically dedicated to scientific work as well as SX3’s capability for additional customizations. SX3 is far more than just a COTS product. This makes IFEN’s new SX3 scientific software receiver a mighty powerful tool for research and development.”