Waveform generator
First Claim
1. In a radar system in which a coherent clock reference signal is used to generate a linear FM signal which is radiated from a transmitter located on a radar system platform, strikes an object, and has a portion thereof reflected back toward the platform, received by the system and thereafter processed to obtain information about the object, this processing including periodically sampling the received signal, a waveform generator whose output signal automatically compensates the received signal both with respect to any difference between the leading edge of the sampled portion of the signal and the leading edge of a sampling window (i.e., range walk) and any change in the received pulse-to-pulse phase and frequency due to motion of the platform occurring between transmission of one pulse and the next (i.e. "focusing"), the generator having means for generating a linear FM reference signal whose signal characteristics account for both any time difference between the leading edge of a sampling window and the leading edge of the sampled portion of the signal and any change in the received pulse-to-pulse phase and frequency due to motion of the platform occurring between the transmission of one pulse and the next.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A waveform generator (12'"'"') is responsive to a reference clock signal input for producing an output waveform which is a linear FM waveform. A reference clock signal is supplied to the generator which performs a double integration to obtain the phase of the output signal. The phase resulting from the double integration is used to obtain the sine of the phase using a lookup table. The sine of the phase is input to digital-to-analogue (D/A) converter, and the output from the D/A converter is filtered using a bandwidth matched to the bandwidth of the transmitted signal. The generator is useful in radar systems for area mapping and target identification.
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Citations
20 Claims
- 1. In a radar system in which a coherent clock reference signal is used to generate a linear FM signal which is radiated from a transmitter located on a radar system platform, strikes an object, and has a portion thereof reflected back toward the platform, received by the system and thereafter processed to obtain information about the object, this processing including periodically sampling the received signal, a waveform generator whose output signal automatically compensates the received signal both with respect to any difference between the leading edge of the sampled portion of the signal and the leading edge of a sampling window (i.e., range walk) and any change in the received pulse-to-pulse phase and frequency due to motion of the platform occurring between transmission of one pulse and the next (i.e. "focusing"), the generator having means for generating a linear FM reference signal whose signal characteristics account for both any time difference between the leading edge of a sampling window and the leading edge of the sampled portion of the signal and any change in the received pulse-to-pulse phase and frequency due to motion of the platform occurring between the transmission of one pulse and the next.
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9. A waveform generator responsive to a reference signal input for producing an output waveform comprising:
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means to which the reference signal is supplied; means for performing a multiple integration to obtain the phase of the output waveform; and
,means for combining the results of the integration with a starting phase to produce the resultant waveform. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of generating a waveform comprising:
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supplying to a waveform generator an initial phase; performing a multiple integration of the phase'"'"'s first and second derivatives; combining, in any combination, the initial phase, and the derivative'"'"'s from each stage of the integration to produce a resultant signal; and
,deriving from the resultant signal an output waveform by providing the resultant signal to a sine wave look-up table, locating in the table a digital value representing a sine wave having a specified set of characteristics, converting the digital value representing the sine wave to an analog sine wave signal, and passing the resultant waveform through a bandpass for bandwidth matching with a signal transmission system. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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- 17. In a radar system in which a coherent clock reference signal is used to generate a linear FM signal which is radiated from a transmitter located on a radar system platform, strikes an object, and has a portion thereof reflected back toward the platform, received by the system and thereafter processed to obtain information about the object, this processing including periodically sampling the received signal, a waveform generator whose output signal automatically compensates the received signal both with respect to any difference between the leading edge of the sampled portion of the signal and the leading edge of a sampling window (i.e., range walk) and any change in the received pulse-to-pulse phase and frequency due to motion of the platform occurring between transmission of one pulse and the next (i.e. "focusing"), the generator having means for generating a linear FM reference signal whose signal characteristics account for both any time difference between the leading edge of a sampling window and the leading edge of the sampled portion of the signal and any change in the received pulse-to-pulse phase and frequency due to motion of the platform occurring between the transmission of one pulse and the next.
Specification