MOSA Enclosure Design for Military Systems

Embedded enclosure design for manned and unmanned systems continues to bring new complexities to light. There are recognizable trends that are driving these challenges. First, Modular Open Standard Architectures (MOSA) are popular for their inherent advantages of an open, multi-vendor system. They are the framework for SOSA™ (Sensor Open Standard Architecture) which is widely mandated for projects in the tri-service community.

The push to reduce SWAP - Size, Weight, and Power (and even add a “−C” for Cost) is not likely to ever diminish and remains a key trend. SWAP-C is important for both small and large systems. The high-performance requirements of today's applications are preventing the size of the system from reducing in many cases. It's hard to reduce the size of the system when you want to continually boost performance - often by utilizing high wattage processors and modules loaded with a lot of RF and I/O interfaces. In fact, combining formerly separate systems for command/control, data processing, up/down conversion and RF modulation, has pushed several designs into larger enclosure size envelopes. Advanced processing for artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity are also key elements, driving the push for innovation.