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Aerospace & Defense
Drones & UAVs
Enable real-time sensor processing, AI, communications, and control with adaptable, power-efficient Altera® FPGA solutions for drones and UAVs.
Powering Unmanned Systems
Drones and UAVs are evolving into sophisticated compute platforms, combining high-bandwidth sensors, real-time communications, control, and AI within tight SWaP constraints. These systems need processing architectures that can scale and adapt to new sensors, interfaces, algorithms, and workloads.
Altera® FPGAs combine high-throughput, deterministic processing with flexible I/O and embedded processing. With the Agilex FPGA portfolio, designers can process and fuse sensor streams, accelerate vision workloads, implement low-latency communications and control, and support RF processing for radar and electronic warfare while addressing performance and size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements.
The Challenges, and Why FPGA
The Challenge
More Sensors, More Data
Radar, EO/IR, LiDAR, navigation and other sensors generate growing volumes of data that must be processed in real time.
Why FPGA
Process Data in Real Time
Process and fuse multiple sensor streams with deterministic, low-latency performance at the edge.
The Challenge
SWaP Constraints
Drones and UAVs demand more onboard processing within tight size, weight, and power constraints
Why FPGA
Do More in Less Space
Combine high-performance processing and I/O on power-efficient, highly integrated FPGA platforms.
The Challenge
Evolving Mission Requirements
Payloads, algorithms, interfaces, and mission requirements continue to change after platforms are deployed.
Why FPGA
Adapt Without Redesign
Reconfigure hardware to support new functionality, interfaces, and workloads without replacing the underlying device.
Why Altera
Performance for SWaP Constrained Platforms
Combine 600+ MHz FPGA performance and high logic utilization to meet real-time processing needs within UAV SWaP constraints.
Scalable FPGA Portfolio
Scale processing, I/O, and integration across drone and UAV platforms and payloads with the Agilex® FPGA portfolio.
Accelerate Edge Processing
Use Altera® FPGAs to accelerate real-time sensor and vision processing at the edge.
Sensor-to-AI Connectivity
Connect high-bandwidth sensors to accelerated AI compute with Holoscan Sensor Bridge IP over high-speed Ethernet.
Get Started
More Aerospace & Defense Applications
Radar
High-performance FPGA SoCs for real-time radar signal capture, processing, beamforming, tracking.
Electronic Warfare (EW)
Reconfigurable FPGA solutions for low-latency, deterministic, and wideband electronic support, protection, and attack modalities.
Secure Communication
Software-defined, SWaP-optimized FPGAs for secure, tamper-resistant military communications.
Avionics
Powering Safer, Smarter Avionics with DO-254-Capable FPGAs. Enabling high-performance cockpit displays, sensor fusion, and mission-critical computing.
Precision-Guided Munitions
FPGAs for guidance, navigation, and target identification in SWaP-C-constrained munitions.
Common Questions
FPGAs provide deterministic, low-latency processing, flexible sensor interfaces, and reconfigurable hardware. They can combine multiple processing functions to address drone and UAV size, weight, and power constraints as sensors, payloads, and workloads evolve.
FPGA-based acceleration enables AI inference alongside real-time sensor and vision processing. FPGA AI Suite helps teams deploy optimized AI workloads, while multi-sensor camera examples demonstrate Agilex® 5 capabilities for high-resolution vision applications. Explore FPGA AI acceleration software
Support for MIPI, Ethernet, and JESD204 connectivity enables integration with cameras, RF data converters, and other UAV sensors. Programmable logic can process and combine multiple data streams while accommodating new payloads and interfaces as system requirements evolve.
A reconfigurable FPGA architecture can support new functionality, interfaces, and workloads without replacing the underlying device. This provides an adaptable processing platform as payload and mission requirements change, rather than committing every function to fixed hardware. Explore Agilex® 5 FPGA and SoC platforms:
The 10G Holoscan Sensor Bridge platform combines Agilex® 5 technology with a 4Kp30 multi-sensor camera example. The sensor-bridge design is paired with an Agilex® 5 E-Series Modular Development Kit for evaluating high-resolution sensor connectivity. Explore the Agilex® 5 FPGA Development Kit: