Chaotic Source for Spread-Spectrum Radar and Communication

Through a collaboration, Monte Sano Research Corporation and Southern Research have recently developed a novel, low-cost signal source for spread spectrum radar and communications systems. This source is capable of producing broadband signals using a printed circuit board and inexpensive (<$100), commercially-available components. This system naturally produces analog voltages and switching signals that follow a regular timing and can be clocked and stored at sub-Nyquist rates, where both the analog and switching signals are chaotic (i.e., non-repeating yet deterministic). Further, this particular signal source produces solvable chaos, a uniquely engineered chaotic waveform for which there exists a truly analog matched filter that can be realized using simple circuits. The output voltages of this matched filter can be used to recover the underlying stored information of the chaotic waveforms with optimal signal-to-noise ratio. This effort will demonstrate that this form of solvable chaos and its matched filter can be used to form a low-cost pulse-compression radar as well as a low-power communications platform. In addition, this effort will extend prior limitations on the bandwidth of solvable chaotic oscillators using control techniques that stabilize the chaos at high frequencies of operation.