<title>Wideband UHF acousto-optic processor</title>

Abstract

This paper summarizes our studies of a time-integrating acousto-optic processor that offers a compact solution to detecting and analyzing wideband spread-spectrum signals for variety of radar, navigation or communication applications. The heart of the processor is a 2D quadrature radio- frequency time-integrating acousto-optic correlator complemented by a subsequent digital processor. Quadrature envelope processing allows the number of delay channels to be significantly reduced. The correlator can have a processing bandwidth up to 500 MHz, and the digital processor is used to perform nonlinear detection and get spectrum information. The theoretical points discussed include sensitivity dynamic range and frequency resolution. Experimental results obtained in the UHF range are also presented.