On the Selection of an Optimum Design Point for Phase-Coherent Receivers Employing Bandpass Limiters

In the design of phase-coherent receivers employing bandpass limiters, it is customary to specify system performance relative to its value at a fixed design point. For a given design point, it is well known that an optimum tradeoff can be found between the power allocated to the carrier and sideband signals. This paper describes an attempt to further improve the performance of such coherent carrier systems by optimizing the design point based upon a given practical optimization criterion. The single-channel system is treated in detail and a brief discussion is given on how to extend the optimization technique to a two-channel system.