ACT REALTIME PROCESSOR

A NEW CLASS OF EXTREMELY FAST SINGLE-CHIP SIGNAL PROCESSORS BASED ON THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGY OF ACOUSTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT (ACT) HAS RECENTLY BECOME AVAILABLE THROUGH AN INTENSE DEVELOPMENT EFFORT BY DARPA AND THE U.S. AIR FORCE. ONE APPLICATION OF THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY IS THE MULTIPLEXING AND PROCESSING OF IR FOCAL PLANE SIGNALS FOR STARTING AND SCANNING ARRAYS. THE PROPOSED PROGRAM SEEKS TO DEVELOP AN ON-PLANE PROCESSOR BASED ON ACT TECHNOLOGY WHICH PERFORMS GAIN AND OFFSET COMPENSATION SPATIAL FILTERING, TEMPORAL FILTERING AND THRESHOLD SETTING PRIOR TO A/D CONVERSION. THESE FUNCTIONS MAY BE PERFORMED USING FOUR SINGLE-CHIP ACT PROCESSORS, EACH OF WHICH OCCUPIES 10 TO 100 SQUARE MILLIMETERS AND CONSUMES LESS THAN ONE-HALF WATT OF POWER. PHASE 1 OF THIS PROGRAM CONSISTS OF THE SYSTEM DESIGN OF THE ACT REALTIME PROCESSOR AS WELL AS A PROJECTION OF EXPECTED PERFORMANCE BASED ON EXISTING DATA OR NEW TESTS USING EXISTING DEVICES.