Martin Marietta Corporation

Actran Systems, Inc.

Barry L Lane

Robert James Martin

Terrance L Worchesky

Kenneth J Ritter

A SAR radar has an optical processor which uses an electrical-signal-to-light modulator. The modulator includes a tapped delay line which may be either analog or digital, and the signals tapped from the delay line are applied to an array of temporary storage elements, which in the case of analog signals may be a capacitive sample-and-hold, or for digital signals may include storage registers. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by comparison with a processor using an acoustic modulator, the signals tapped from the delay line are sampled at a display sampling rate, which is very low by comparison with the signal sampling rate or the highest frequency of interest, and the sampled signals are held until the next following display rate pulse. The signals held in the temporary storage elements are applied to the modulator elements, so that the optical pattern remains fixed for relatively long periods of time during which the optical processing can integrate photons for improved SNR.

Mutiple-clock controlled spatial light modulator

The electronically tuned power oscillator (ETPO) of the present invention provides a method and apparatus that drives a narrow-band (high Q) transducer over a relatively broad band of frequencies. A pseudo-random sequence generator dynamically switches a bank of capacitors varying the resonant frequency of the power oscillator. A node on the power oscillator provides the clock for the pseudo-random sequence generator thereby providing a synchronized frequency change on every time varying cycle.

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Longwood, FL, United States of America

Barry L Lane