SIGNAL PROCESSING ENHANCEMENTS FOR GBR-X RADAR

IN ANY RADAR EMPLOYING AN ARRAY RECEIVING ANTENNA, SIGNALS FROM A NUMBER OF ANTENNA ELEMENTS ARE APPROPRIATELY WEIGHTED AND COMBINED TO FORM VARIOUS ANTENNA BEAM OUTPUTS. DIGITAM BEAMFORMING (DBF) DENOTES THE FORMATION OF THESE BEAM OUTPUTS BY DIGITAL COMPUTER. THE ELEMENTAL SIGNALS ARE SAMPLED AND DIGITIZED, THEN WEIGHTED AND COMBINED AS "NUMBERS" IN THE COMPUTER. THE STREAM OF NUMBERS THUS FORMED PRESENTS THE SIGNAL THAT IS SEEN BY A GIVEN ANTENNA BEAM. CHANGING THE WEIGHTS APPLIED TO THE DIGITIZED SAMPLES CHANGES THE DIRECTION AND/OR SHAPE. WAVE NUMBERS CONSTITUTE A CRITICAL PROCESSING PARAMETER. SPACE TECH CORPORATION PROPOSES TO DEVELOP ANALOG "PRE-PROCESSING" ELEMENTS JUST PRIOR TO THE A/D CONVERSION. UTILIZATION OF UNIQUE CONVERSION PROPERTIES OF SIGNED-DIGIT NUMBER SYSTEMS AND INHERENTLY FAST ALU'S WILL GREATLY ENHANCE BANDWIDTH.