All-Digital LOS Processor Adaptive Pulse Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing line-of-sight (LOS) processor architectures for semi-active or active pulsed electromagnetic targeting systems face challenges in size, weight, power constraints, and are inefficient in detecting EM pulses amidst natural clutter and active jamming, leading to potential mission failures due to errors in detection or LOS processing.
Innovation Solution
An all-digital LOS processor architecture that converts analog signals to digital, allowing for improved pulse detection and LOS calculation performance through configurable channel activation, matched filtering, adaptive thresholding, and notch filtering, enhancing sensitivity and accuracy over a wide field-of-view while reducing susceptibility to false alarms and jamming.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mixed analog/digital architecture is used for pulse detection and LOS processing, then detection capability is maintained, but size, weight and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces analog electronic circuits with digital signal processing. The A/D converters convert analog detector signals to digital form, and all subsequent processing (pulse detection, LOS calculation, filtering) is performed digitally. This substitution of analog systems with digital systems reduces size, weight and power while maintaining or improving detection capability.
2Speed
If standard analog thresholding is used for pulse detection, then detection speed is maintained, but detection accuracy amidst clutter and jamming deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies matched filtering before thresholding. The matched filter correlates the incoming signal with the expected pulse waveform, enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio before detection. This preliminary processing step improves detection accuracy by emphasizing signal characteristics while suppressing clutter and jamming, while the subsequent digital thresholding maintains fast detection response.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements adaptive thresholding where the detection threshold is adjusted based on the statistical properties of the background clutter and jamming. The system continuously monitors the signal environment and adapts the threshold to maintain optimal detection performance, improving accuracy while responding dynamically to changing conditions.
3Device complexity
If fixed detection threshold is used, then system complexity is reduced, but adaptability to varying clutter and jamming conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements adaptive thresholding where the detection threshold dynamically adjusts based on the statistical properties of the background environment. The system calculates the mean and standard deviation of the signal between pulses and sets the threshold as mean plus a multiple of standard deviation, allowing the threshold to adapt to varying clutter and jamming conditions while maintaining reasonable computational complexity.
4Measurement precision
If all digital channels are processed for LOS calculation, then LOS accuracy is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes only the relevant digital channel data needed for LOS calculation. After pulse detection, the system identifies which channels contain valid pulse signals and processes only those channels for LOS determination, rather than uniformly processing all channels. This selective approach maintains LOS accuracy while reducing processing time by eliminating unnecessary computations.
Data Source
AI summary
An all-digital line-of-sight (LOS) process architecture addresses the size, weight, power and performance constraints of a receiver for use in semi-active or active pulsed electromagnetic (EM) targeting systems. The all-digital architecture provides a platform for enhanced techniques for sensitive pulse detection over a wide field-of-view, adaptive pulse detection, LOS processing and counter measures.