SemQuest is a design services company specializing in full custom mixed signal ASIC design, FPGA design and PCB and system design solutions. SemQuest designs have been employed in the Mars Curiosity Rover Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and the SemQuest Beam Irradiance on Target (BITS) high energy laser sensor. SemQuest offers the IRIG-B receiver IP solution: decodes amplitude modulated IRIG-B time code using a Microsemi ProASIC3 FPGA and a single serial A/D converter. The A/D converter measures the incoming IRIG-B signal and automatically adapts to a range of amplitudes and modulation ratios and provides the user with a robust means of implementing an IRIG-B receiver with a minimal set of external hardware. The module uses a total of 2858 blocks with 2494 combinational blocks and 364 sequential blocks. The IRIG-B time standard updates time at a rate of once per second, and the SemQuest IRIG-B receiver records incoming IRIG-B time updates and uses an internal counter to increment the received time such that the time output registers continuously have a valid time available to the user. This allows the user to have an accurate time continuously available rather than have implement logic to service a time input update. The SemQuest IRIG-B IP has been instantiated in SemQuest proprietary hardware and has also been demonstrated using the Microsemi A3PE Starter Kit. The customer can purchase the starter kit and the SemQuest IRIG-B IP and have a demonstration system up and running in a few hours. The algorithm is robust enough that it is likely able to receive and decode un-modulated IRIG time codes and other IRIG standards.
