A real-time mono-chip tracking active IR targets

We propose an original VLSI architecture to be implemented on a single chip focal plane array, dedicated to the detection and the tracking of cooperative active targets in unfriendly and noisy environment. The system we describe can detect IR targets very fast (in less than 1 ms) at signal-to-noise ratios close or below 0 dB. The basic principle is an asynchronous detection of pseudo-random IR target signal at each pixel level. Each pixel uses an analog circular convolution mechanism to extract useful information from input signal. The form and the length of pseudo-random patterns to be tracked are user defined and can be dynamically changed from outside of focal plane array. The spatial and the temporal resolution of the system can be balanced inside of some hardware limits, with respect of user requirements.