Signal processing using surface-acoustic-wave and digital components

The high performance of currently available digital components now permits the efficient coupling of surface-acoustic-wave and digital technologies. Hybrid circuits can be built which benefit from both the flexibility of the digital circuits and the high processing speed of the s.a.w. devices. Further, such circuits offer reduced volume and reduced power consumption. The compatibility of these two technologies, the resulting advantages and the coupling methods are discussed. System examples are presented which relate to the sonar and the radar fields ¿¿ pulse compression, beam forming, 2-dimensional analysis, spectrum analysis and correlation processing.