Analog to Information (A2I) Sensing for Software Defined Receivers

ELINT systems are often limited in bandwidth because the Nyquist criterion restricts the sampled bandwidth to one half of the maximum sampling rate of the A/D converter. While A/D converter technology has improved over the last several years, it is still not sufficient for many wideband applications. Compressive sensing (CS) is a revolutionary concept recently proposed that allows for wider bandwidths to be processed using sampling rates less than the Nyquist rate when the sampled signals are sparse. Radar signals, such as those detected by an ELINT receiver typically meet such requirements for sparseness. GIRD Systems proposes to develop a hardware prototype of a new compressive sensing method that was developed in Phase I and is optimized for ELINT receivers that detect radar signals. By selecting an appropriate basis function set, we can deliver a system that meets performance expectations while still capable of being implemented in hardware.