High Dynamic Range Range-doppler Imager

Abstract

Range-Doppler radar is a valuable tool for target detection and discrimination. High resolution in both range and Doppler is required to separate moving targets from one another, and from clutter. High dynamic range is required to be able to see low radar cross section targets in the presence of severe clutter and bright targets. This paper describes a hybrid acousto-optic/digital electronic processor that Essex Corporation, under contract to the US Army, is developing to generate high dynamic range, high resolution, range-Doppler images from wideband radar returns.The hybrid processor takes advantage of the strengths of the mature technologies of both analog acousto-optics and digital electronics to maximize processing speed, processing gain, and dynamic range. The range-Doppler images generated by the Essex processor are large: 1024 range x 170 Doppler resolution bins. Computing these large high resolution images in real time from wideband radar signals is computationally intensive and beyond the capability of digital electronics, particularly when including the need for analog to digital conversion. The effective computational rate that can be achieved with the hybrid processor architecture is greater than 100 tera-ops per second.