AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT FOR AIR FLIGHT SENSOR SIGNAL PROCESSING

THE PURPOSE OF AN AIR FLIGHT SENSOR SUBSYSTEM IS TO DETECT THE SIGNATURE OF FLIGHT CONDITIONS AFTER A PROJECTILE HAS BEEN SAFELY FIRED. THIS INFORMATION, WHEN COMBINED WITH OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF PROJECTILE FIRING, SUCH AS ACCELERATION, PROVIDES POSITIVE INDICATION WHEN IT IS SAFE TO ARM THE WARHEAD. WE PROPOSE TO BUILD THE FLIGHT SENSOR SIGNAL PROCESSING AS A SINGLE, CUSTOM INTEGRATED CIRCUIT. THE SIGNAL PROCESSING CHIP DESIGN WHICH WE PROPOSE IS AN INNOVATIVE APPLICATION OF SWITCHED-CAPACITOR FILTERS, WHICH HAVE BEEN EXTENSIVELY USED IN RECENT YEARS FOR LOW-POWER AUDIO FILTERS IN SINGLE-CHIP CODECS. THE CHIP WOULD BE MOUNTED ON A SMALL HYBRID SUBSTRATE CONTAINING A FEW DISCRETE COMPONENTS. AN AIR FLIGHT SENSOR TRANSDUCER COULD BE LOCATED ON THE SAME SUBSTRATE OR COULD BE LOCATED SEPARATELY. THIS DESIGN HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR AUTOMATED, LOW-COST ASSEMBLY NEEDED FOR HIGH VOLUME PROJECTILE APPLICATION.