A flexible processor for a digital adaptive array radar

The signal processing for an experimental digital adaptive array radar is described. Conversion to baseband quadrature channels is accomplished digitally using a single analog-to-digital (A/D) converter per channel, and finite impulse response (FIR) equalizing filters are employed in each channel to match channel transfer functions. A modular processor architecture is presented which not only distributes the total processing load, but also the input/output (I/O) bandwidth requirement. This is accomplished by distributing the adaptive beamforming algorithm systolically across a linear array of processing nodes. Experimental data demonstrate that the processor is capable of supporting channel-to-channel cancellation of interfering signals to the level of -65 dB