Use of a surface-acoustic-wave delay line to provide pseudocoherence in a clutter-reference pulse Doppler radar

A surface-acoustic-wave delay line has been used to provide a coherent reference signal in a small-pulse Doppler radar. Preliminary experiments using the device gave a 10¿12 dB gain in Doppler signal when compared with a clutter reference system operating in a low-clutter environment. A simple theory is given which describes expected performance when using noncoherent detection.