Patents by Inventor Frank F. Kretschmer

Frank F. Kretschmer has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5463399
    Abstract: An improved MTI radar system including a signal expander/compressor for providing palindromic P2 phase-coded upswept and downswept expanded signals that are alternately transmitted by a radar transmitter. The echos from the upswept and downswept signals are received by a receiver, compressed in the signal expander/compressor and inputted to an MTI subtractor. Since the autocorrelation sidelobes of the palindromic phase coded echos are real, the echos from stationary clutter are completely cancelled so that the system is capable of detecting weak echos from moving targets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 1983
    Date of Patent: October 31, 1995
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5442365
    Abstract: A technique for improving sidelobe canceller performance by blocking the canceller output signal upon sensing reduced main channel interference accompanied by an increased sidelobe canceller output. Two signal processing networks form the difference between successive output signals from a radar antenna and sidelobe canceller respectively. The difference signals are multiplied together and the product used to control passage and preclude utilization of the canceller output signal when reduced jamming interference occurs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 1975
    Date of Patent: August 15, 1995
    Inventors: Bernard L. Lewis, Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5359329
    Abstract: A system for cancelling jammer signals entering the mainlobe of a monopulse adar and providing target locations with respect to the jammer position comprising for a sequential lobing embodiment: measuring the angular position of the jammer in the radar's mainlobe via the use of monopulse sum and difference signals, pointing the radar antenna so that the jammer is positioned within the 3 dB points of the mainlobe of the monopulse antenna, converting the sum and difference echo signals received with the antenna in this position from the next radar transmission into a second set sum and difference signals, applying this second set of sum and second set of difference signals to the inputs of an adaptive canceller to cancel the jamming signal therein and storing these signals in time sequential order, changing the orientation of the radar antenna by a small arbitrary elevation angle, converting the sum and difference echo signals received with the antenna in this new position from a third radar transmission into a
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 1981
    Date of Patent: October 25, 1994
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Bernard L. Lewis, Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5351058
    Abstract: A digital, open-loop, sidelobe canceller system includes an arrangement of uxiliary-channel preprocessing cancellers and a series of main-channel cancellers in which specific cancellers average a different number of samples for cancelling both barrage (continuous) jamming and false-target-repeater jamming, which enter the sidelobes of a radar antenna. The preprocessing cancellers and each of the main-channel cancellers, except the last succeeding main-channel canceller, use long-time averaging (averaging over a large number, n, of samples of the main and auxiliary signals, where n>>2) for removing barrage jamming from the main signal. The last succeeding main-channel canceller uses short-time averaging (averaging over approximately 2-4 samples) for removing false-target-repeater jamming from the main signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 1979
    Date of Patent: September 27, 1994
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr., Bernard L. Lewis
  • Patent number: 5047784
    Abstract: A method and apparatus exploiting the discovery that the crosscorrelation of constantly spaced rows of the matrices representing certain pulse codes sum to zero. In a ranging system, such as a radar, pulses are coded according to the rows of a such a matrix, transmitted sequentially and each return processed sequentially through a filter matched to one of the coded pulses. (A different preselected filter is used for each return.) The sequence of filters is chosen so that for returns for a given range interval, each filter is matched to the returning pulse, resulting in outputs from the filters representing auto-correlations of the returned pulses. These outputs are time delayed added coherently to form the compressed pulse, and annunciated as a target hit. Should the filters and returns be mismatched, as with ambiguous stationary clutter returns, the outputs of the filters are cross-correlations which, according to said discovery, sum to zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 1991
    Date of Patent: September 10, 1991
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Karl R. Gerlach, Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4914442
    Abstract: A method of preserving targets in the clear in an adaptive baseband MTI radar system with pulse compression is disclosed. The angle of the weighting signal is determined from the inverse tangent of the inphase and quadrature components of the weighting signal. This angle is then compared to a threshold angle in order to generate a modified weighting signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 1989
    Date of Patent: April 3, 1990
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr., Bernard L. Lewis
  • Patent number: 4734699
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for reducing cyclic losses due to doppler shifting frequency-derived phase coded expanded radar pulses using new expanded pulse codes which increase the number of phase elements without increasing compression ratios. These new expanded codes may be generated by sampling the phase characteristics of a chirp or step-chirp waveform above the Nyquist rate to derive the phases of the new coded waveforms and compressing the new expanded pulses with a compression ratio equal to the reciprocal of the signal bandwidth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 29, 1988
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4698827
    Abstract: A decoding device for use in pulse compression radars to decode a novel pe code that has the advantage of precompression bandwidth tolerance. The novel code type is described by the following formula (where .DELTA..phi..sub.k,p is the phase change at the kth subpulse of the pth subsequence within the width of a phase-modulated pulse):.DELTA..phi..sub.k,p =(2.pi./N) [k+pN][p-(1/2)(N-1)]k=0, 1,2, . . . , N-1p=0, 1,2, . . . , N-1 (N any integer)The input signal is fed into multi-stage I and Q shift registers. Each stage in the shift register is fed into an adder, correlation being effected by first multiplying the real and quadrature parts of the signal stored in the stages of the I and Q shift register by a preselected multiplying factor, the sequence of multiplying factors corresponding to the time-reversed and negative phases of the transmitted pulse. The sum signal at the output of the adder corresponds to the auto-correlation function of the received signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 1981
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Frank F. Kretschmer
  • Patent number: 4626854
    Abstract: A digital pulse expander-compressor for use in pulse compression radars and having the advantage of precompression bandwidth tolerance. The pulse expander-compressor employs a discrete Fourier transform circuit and multi-stage delay line feeding inputs x(n) to the discrete Fourier transform circuit to generate outputs in accordance with the formulaF.sub.k =.SIGMA.x(n)exp[-jz.pi.nk/N]where n is the sequence number of the clock pulse; N is an even integer corresponding to the number of delay stages plus one and k is the number of the output subpulse from the transform circuit. An arrangement of delay stages differentially delays the output subpulses from the discrete Fourier transform circuit, and a coherent summer adds the real and imaginary parts of the signals from the delay lines. The delay stages delay the subpulse F.sub.k by nN clock pulse intervals where n and k are interrelated by the formulae k=N/2-n for n=0, 1, . . . , and N/2 and k=(3N/2)-n for n=N/2+1, N/2+2, . . . , N-1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 2, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr., Bernard L. Lewis
  • Patent number: 4566011
    Abstract: A digital pulse expander-compressor for generating polyphase coded pulses which are highly doppler tolerant and have autocorrelation functions which are identical under frequency sweep reversal. The expander-compressor comprises an input expansion circuit for generating N replicas of a pulse to be expanded, a matched filter FFT with phase weights disposed in each input thereto, and phase inverters disposed in every other output therefrom, and a time dispersion circuit for appropriately adding the pulses from the FFT output to yield an expanded or compressed pulse. The phase weights to be inserted at the inputs to the FFT are determined by the equation .phi..sub.n =.+-..pi.(n-1/2).sup.2 /.rho. for a PP-3 code or .phi..sub.n =.+-.[.pi.(n-1/2).sup.2 /.rho.-.pi.(n-1/2)] for a PP-4 code, where .rho. is the pulse compression ratio and n varies from 1, 2, 3 . . . .rho..
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1983
    Date of Patent: January 21, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Bernard L. Lewis, Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4524363
    Abstract: A pulse expansion and compression system, especially useful for radar rang, comprising a pulse coder for expanding an input pulse and a pulse compressor of the matched-filter type. The coder consists of a plurality of delay stages into which the input pulse is fed, a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) circuit to which the output signals of the delay stages are fed by way of respective phase weights and for which every frequency port is phase-shifted prior to entry to a time-dispersion-means (TDM) comprising an arrangement of delay stages for differently delaying the output signals from the DFT. The TDM output is fed to a phase modulator and then to the transmitter.The echo signals are conjugated, time-inverted, and passed through the same DFT as the input pulse signal by way of the phase weights. The outputs of the DFT are then phase-shifted at every frequency port and passed through the TDM, but this time in time-inverted order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1982
    Date of Patent: June 18, 1985
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Frank F. Kretschmer
  • Patent number: 4513289
    Abstract: A pulse expansion and compression system, especially useful for radar rang, comprising a pulse coder for expanding an input pulse and a pulse compressor of the matched-filter type. The coder consists of a plurality of delay stages into which the input pulse is fed, a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) circuit to which the output signals of the delay stages are fed by way of respective phase weights and for which every other frequency port is inverted prior to entry to a time-dispersion-means (TDM) comprising an arrangement of adders interconnected by delay stages for differently delaying the output signals from the DFT. The TDM output is fed to a phase modulator and then to the transmitter.The echo signals are conjugated, time-inverted, and passed through the same DFT as the input pulse signal by way of the phase weights. The outputs of the DFT are then inverted at every other frequency port and passed through the TDM, but this time in time-inverted order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1982
    Date of Patent: April 23, 1985
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Frank F. Kretschmer
  • Patent number: 4507659
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for reducing the peak to peak-sidelobe ratio of the compressed pulse output signal of a symmetrical frequency derived phase coded pulse expander-compressor. The apparatus includes a bandwidth limiting device connected to the output of a symmetrical frequency derived phase coded pulse expander-compressor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1983
    Date of Patent: March 26, 1985
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Bernard L. Lewis, Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4489320
    Abstract: An impulse interference suppression circuit for use in combination with an -pulse Moving Target Indicator system comprising a gate connected to block the output signal from the MTI system when energized, and a circuit for taking the magnitudes of successive echo return signals, subtracting the magnitudes of consecutive echo signals to remove clutter, comparing the consecutive difference signals from such subtractions against each other, and generating and applying a blocking signal to the gate if the difference between the subtraction difference signals is above a given threshold level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 1981
    Date of Patent: December 18, 1984
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Bernard L. Lewis, Frank F. Kretschmer
  • Patent number: 4464768
    Abstract: The present invention preprocesses serial data sample sets so that truly ependent samples are available for further processing. Samples to be analyzed are delayed and compared in order to isolate both components that are correlated between samples, and components that are uncorrelated between samples. These components provide independent information relating the samples which are used to modify or preprocess incoming data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 1975
    Date of Patent: August 7, 1984
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Bernard L. Lewis, Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4459700
    Abstract: An improved technique for eliminating interference in serial data samples ving signal components which are desired to be removed before being further processed. A limited-iterative technique is employed to reduce components of the incoming data samples which are correlated among prior data samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 1975
    Date of Patent: July 10, 1984
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr., Bernard L. Lewis, James P. Hansen
  • Patent number: 4439770
    Abstract: A sidelobe-canceller system for cancelling jamming interference signals f a radar signal includes serially cascaded cancellation channels utilizing preprocessing cancellers and main-channel cancellers. The last serially cascaded cancellation channel includes terminal preprocessing cancellers and terminal main-channel cancellers. The preprocessing is improved by the use of AGC circuits connected one each between the terminal preprocessing cancellers and terminal main-channel cancellers to stabilize the gain of the terminal main-channel cancellers, thus improving the cancellation ratio and transient response of the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 1976
    Date of Patent: March 27, 1984
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Bernard L. Lewis, Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4404562
    Abstract: An improved FM pulse compression system which has low range-time sidelobes nd is doppler tolerant. This system is implemented by using an analog-type linear FM modulated transmission pulse and processing the echo from this pulse by means of baseband sampling at the Nyquist sampling rate and then compressing this sampled signal by means of a discrete phase compression circuit. In brief, the present invention comprises a receiver for receiving the FM echo pulse, a sampling and holding circuit for sampling the echo at baseband at the Nyquist sampling rate and then converting to IF, and a discrete phase compression circuit for compressing the appropriate number of sampled outputs from the sampling and holding circuit. If an echo is properly indexed in the phase compression circuit, then a short pulse with a relatively high amplitude is generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 13, 1983
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr., Bernard L. Lewis
  • Patent number: H92
    Abstract: An adaptive N-pulse MTI processor for obtaining optimum clutter cancellation with a minimum of hardware, comprising a first input pulse line; first delay means for providing an interpulse delay T to pulses on this first input line; a first adaptive canceller with its auxiliary input connected directly to take pulses from the first input line, and with its main input connected to take delayed pulses from the first delay means; and N-2 series-connected canceller circuits, with each canceller circuit associated with a different level of pulses. The nth canceller circuit, where 1.ltoreq.n.ltoreq.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 1985
    Date of Patent: July 1, 1986
    Assignee: United States of America
    Inventors: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr., Bernard L. Lewis
  • Patent number: H767
    Abstract: A method and apparatus exploiting the discovery that the cross-correlation of rows of Frank or P4 matrices of a given spacing sum to zero. In a ranging system, such as a radar, pulses are coded according to the rows of a Frank or P4 matrix, transmitted sequentially and each return processed sequentially through a filter matched to one of the coded pulses. (A different preselected filter is used for each return.) The sequence of filters is chosen so that for returns for a given range interval, each filter is matched to the returning pulse, resulting in outputs from the filters representing auto-correlations of the returned pulses. These outputs are time delayed added coherently to form the compressed pulse, and annunciated as a target hit. Should the filters and returns be mismatched, as with ambiguous stationary clutter returns, the outputs of the filters are cross-correlations which, according to said discovery, sum to zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1989
    Date of Patent: April 3, 1990
    Assignee: United States of America
    Inventors: Frank F. Kretschmer, Jr., Karl R. Gerlach