Signal-to-Noise Ratio Meter

Technology Service Corporation (TSC) proposes to demonstrate a signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) motor that can measure and display, in real time, the SNR of pulsed and/or CW microwave signals with very high accuracy. The design of the unit is based upon the rotating phase reference (RPR) measurement technique developed by TSC, which has been implemented in software at NSWC Crane's Microwave Systems Directorate. This OM motor will implement MM computations in innovative, TSC developed, high-speed digital signal processing (DSP) hardware and software. The measurement output in delayed only by the time required to process the raw data, which is a small fraction of a second, and is shorter than the data acquisition time. Thus, the motor operates in real time. This measurement, an presently implemented in software, taken 2 to 3 minutes per frequency. The tine reduction factor of 1000 to 2000 offers three major benefits to the user: (1) the obvious saving in toot labor. (2) the ability to make a more thorough toot (using more frequencies, a variety of toot parameters, etc.) without a significant effect an test time or cost. (3) the opportunity to improve component, unit or system performance by enabling the user to observe, in real time. the impact of adjusting the operating parameters of a device or assembly. The SNR metor will find many applications in the electronics industry, particularly in radar and communications, whore maintenance of good SNR is vital to system performance.