High performance signal acquisition systems for sonar applications

Examines the technology/complexity balance in high performance sonar data acquisition systems and outlines the development of some signal conditioning and A-to-D convertor systems that use sigma-delta convertor techniques, low complexity digital combiners and recursive interpolators. Various realisations of the basic circuits have been developed for a number of particular applications (with bandwidths ranging from a few hundred Hz to in excess of 100 kHz), using mixtures of thick film, surface mount and VLSI ASIC technologies. The paper demonstrates that low cost signal acquisition systems, with wide dynamic range and modest power requirements, can be routinely produced using these techniques