Thomson-csf

Thales

Alain Becker

Jean-Paul Artis

Jean Chazelas

Nicolas Bon

Maxence Marcant

The method processes measured vertical profiles of the power of the echoes returned following a transmission of radar signals, each measured vertical profile being a function of the sweep angle of the radar beam and associated with a given pointing angle/distance box pair of the radar beam. The method generates a synthetic vertical profile of the power of the echoes returned by the ground only, and includes, for each measured vertical profile: superposition of the synthetic vertical profile on the measured vertical profile in question, for various values of the sweep angle, calculation of the error that exists between the measured vertical profile and the synthetic vertical profile, for each sweep angle value in question, and an exclusion, from the measured vertical profile, of the values for which the calculated error is less than a given threshold, in order to generate a resultant vertical profile with no ground echoes.

Method for processing measured vertical profiles of the power of the echoes returned following a transmission of radar signals

Optical connection device and data processing apparatus fitted with

This device has, on one and the same component: an image zone having a first array of at least one line of cells integrating an electrical charge than can then be transferred from point to point in the array, along the line, up to an end of this line; a memory zone having a second array with a same number of lines of cells and a transfer zone. The line of the second array is a looped line sequenced like the corresponding line of the first array, and at the same rate, and the transfer zone includes charge divider means receiving, at input, said charge transferred from point to point in the first array along the line and dividing said charge into two sub-charges with a pre-determined relative ratio; means to neutralize the first of these sub-charges; and means to add the second of these sub-charges to the charge received at output of the looped line and to reinject the resultant total charge into the input of the looped line so as to make it recirculate therein. The concomitant sequencing of the lines of the first array and of the second array is repeated in a plurality of cycles so as to bring about an increase, by the accumulation of the second successive sub-charges in the looped line, of the corresponding charge of the memory array. Thus, by the resulting second integration, the dynamic range of the charge-coupled device is increased by a proportion corresponding to said pre-determined ratio of the two sub-charges, which is typically 40 dB (thus taking the dynamic range, for example, from 120 to 160 dB) for a ratio of 100:1.

Charge-coupled device with wide dynamic range

In the disclosed optic signals processor, a term-by-term subtraction is made of the N homologous values of two series of values resulting from the integration of a light energy that selectively strikes respective photoactive pixels of a charge-coupled device. This charge-coupled device includes the following on one and the same component:

Growing community of inventors

Montrouge, France

Alain Becker