Engineering design and evaluation of s.a.w. pulse compression filters with low time sidelobes

A linear f.m. pulse compression sub-system employing surface acoustic wave dispersive filters has been designed. When operated as a coherent pulse compression loop, this sub-system provides a compressed pulse with all time sidelobes suppressed by more than 40 dB. This demanding level of performance which is a significant improvement over previously reported sub-systems has been achieved by the development of a design procedure which permits compensations for the spectral ripples of the transmitted waveform to be incorporated in the design of the compression filter. Measurement of amplitude and phase characteristics of the compression filter indicates very good agreement with theoretical predictions.