Digital Patents (Class 342/162)
  • Patent number: 8311555
    Abstract: The disclosure provides a wireless device for use in a wireless network, systems and methods for identifying radar signals and for giving the wireless network a radar-avoidance capability. In one embodiment, the wireless device includes: (1) a pulse analyzer configured to make a determination whether a received pulse is a radar pulse and not a wireless network pulse and (2) a pulse reporter coupled to the pulse analyzer and configured to generate, if the determination is positive, a report thereof for transmission over the wireless network to a central aggregation node thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Agere Systems LLC
    Inventors: Jan P. Kruys, Amiram Levi
  • Patent number: 8310392
    Abstract: A radar device includes an antenna, from which a detection signal is transmitted while the antenna being rotated and by which a reflective wave of the transmitted detection signal is received to detect echo data, wherein image data is generated based on the detected echo data, a continuity detecting module for detecting a planar continuity of the currently detected echo data with respect to a pixel concerned in the image data, a behavior data generating module for generating behavior data indicative of a behavior of the echo data for a predetermined number of scans of the past in the pixel concerned based on behavior determination data, and an echo kind determining module for determining a kind of the echo data of the pixel concerned based on the planar continuity and the behavior data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Furuno Electric Company, Limited
    Inventors: Tatsuya Kojima, Takumi Fujikawa, Hidetoshi Kaida, Yu Morita, Toshiaki Takaki, Katsunori Okamatu
  • Patent number: 8305261
    Abstract: A method of adaptively removing mainlobe clutter from range-Doppler data includes estimating the peak of the mainlobe clutter, and determining clutter regionboundaries adaptively and robustly. The mainlobe clutter peak may be estimated from the range-Doppler data, for example using both nonlinear and linear filters. Alternatively the mainlobe clutter peak may be estimated from knowledge of the position and speed of the vehicle, such as a missile, upon which the radar system moves. The clutter boundaries may be determined at each of the range bins by stepping along Doppler bins from the mainlobe clutter peak estimate in opposite directions, locating the boundary at locations off of the mainlobe clutter peak estimate that meet a given criterion. The method produces a finer determination of the mainlobe clutter region, resulting in less of the range-Doppler data being excluded as part of the mainlobe clutter region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2012
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: Kyle P. Hunter
  • Patent number: 8237606
    Abstract: A system includes a pulsed UHF radar for integrating the signal received over a given integration time. The integration time for the received signal and the size of the distance bin are defined in such a way that, taking into account the range of speeds of the targets of interest, a moving target of interest travels only a distance shorter than the size of the distance bin from one integration period to another. Furthermore, the UHF radar implements a method of forming radar blips from the received signal to form elementary blips from the signals received over the chosen integration time and to store them from one burst to another. The method also confirms that the elementary blips formed probably correspond to targets of interest and then forms, from the confirmed elementary blips, aggregate blips, the attributes of an aggregate blip depending on the attributes of the confirmed elementary blips from which the aggregate blip stems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Thales Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Paul Molin, Yves Ricci
  • Patent number: 8207889
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a dual polarization radar apparatus includes a received power calculation unit configured to calculate a horizontal polarization received power and a vertical polarization received power, the horizontal polarization received power indicating a power value of a horizontal polarization received signal reflected from an observation target, the vertical polarization received power indicating a power value of a vertical polarization received signal reflected from the observation target, a power ratio calculation unit configured to calculate a power ratio between the horizontal polarization received power and the vertical polarization received power, and an interference judgment unit configured to judge that an interference signal is mixed to the horizontal polarization received signal or the vertical polarization received signal when the power ratio is greater than a predetermined threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Hiroshi Ishizawa, Masakazu Wada, Fumihiko Mizutani
  • Patent number: 8169362
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for sensing a target through a wall or obstruction by a Moving Target Indicator (MTI) radar sensor. In an exemplary embodiment, a series of radar pulses are transmitted at frequencies less than about 5 GHz. Radar return signals are received at a plurality of receive antenna array subapertures. The radar return signals are processed by a digital beamformer to form multiple beams. Target detection processing detects moving and stationary targets through a plurality of parallel target detection signal processing paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Carl D. Cook, Scott E. Adcook, Michael D. Lee, Mena J. Ghebranious
  • Patent number: 8164512
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a Gaussian adaptive filter for ground clutter filtering and signal parameter estimation for weather radars in the time domain. In some embodiments, the filtering can be applied to dual polarization radar systems. In some embodiments, the clutter component of the signal can be transformed to noise. An interpolation procedure can then be used to recover the transformed part of the weather. A unique filter can be designed to use for both H and V channels for dual-polarization parameter estimation. In addition, the filter can be directly extended for staggered PRT 2/3 sampling scheme.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Colorado State University Research Foundation
    Inventors: Chandrasekaran Venkatachalam, Cuong M. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 8125374
    Abstract: Described herein is a method of preventing false detections in sensors pulse-Doppler radar mounted on a moving platform. The method comprises filtering each received burst using Doppler filtering to split each received burst into at least a fast channel and one or more slow channels. The slow channel outputs are then used to derive compensation values for the fast channel. In particular, a zero Doppler slow channel is used to derive predicted surface clutter residue information, and a near zero Doppler slow channel is used to derive additional false alarm control attenuation information. Both the predicted surface clutter residue and the false alarm control attenuation information is used to apply compensation to the fast channel and a comparison is done to select the lower of the two values to generate an output signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: BAE Systems PLC
    Inventor: Philip Trevelyan Edwards
  • Patent number: 8120523
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of eliminating ground echoes for a meteorological radar. The ground echoes being received from a predetermined area by a radar, the radar illuminating, for a predetermined number R of transmission recurrences, the area over a number P of distance cells, the method includes a step for calculating a spatial statistical parameter of the cluttered echoes received by the radar in response to the recurrences over an analysis path for distance cells, and a step to compare the spatial variation level of the spatial statistical parameter along the analysis path, the echoes being considered to be ground echoes when the level of said variation is greater than a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Stephane Kemkemian, Stephane Guguen, Christian Chaure
  • Patent number: 8102310
    Abstract: A process for detecting and discriminating a particular target, such as an ambulating human, amidst an environment crowded with other objects or humans having similar doppler profiles to the desired target. A method according to one embodiment includes generating an initial radar image corresponding to a received doppler profile of a target, and generating a matched filter signal corresponding to the received doppler profile. The matched filter signal is correlated with subsequently received radar images to detect and discriminate the target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2012
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Kapriel Krikorian, Robert Rosen, Mary Krikorian
  • Patent number: 8089392
    Abstract: Integration of ionospheric models in over the horizon radars (OTHR) is achieved with very little or substantially no change to existing coordinate registration systems or software by specifying a virtual transponder at a target location and generating a signal which appears to have emanated from a transponder at that location. A return path to said virtual transponder is ray-traced through the ionospheric model to produce propagation parameters; and an appropriately delayed virtual transponder signal is inserted into the receiver. The result produced at the receiver is used to perform coordinate registration for further received signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Assignee: Qinetiq Limited
    Inventor: Paul Stephen Cannon
  • Patent number: 8035551
    Abstract: A pulsed compression noise correlation radar uses noise modulation and pulse compression technology to scramble recognizable transmit signal characteristics and reduce transmit energy. The pulsed noise correlation radar advantageously uses pulse compression technology, a pulsed linear frequency modulated noise correlation mixer, and a new and innovative noise fused waveform to automatically correlate the pulsed linear frequency modulated (LFM) noise waveform with the received signal. The pulsed noise correlation radar apparatus and system now make it possible to effectively reduce transmitting power, preserve high band widths through oversampling in the receiver, and achieve multi-channel array frequency diversity. A secure pulsed compression noise correlation radar system and methods for undetected target detection with pulsed noise correlation radar and a pulsed LFM fused noise waveform are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
    Inventor: Mark A. Govoni
  • Patent number: 8026839
    Abstract: A receiver that selectively samples a received signal in order to suppress an interference component of the signal while recovering a desired component. The selective sampling may be accomplished by low cost, low complex analog or digital circuitry. The receiver includes a first input that receives a first signal, including a desired signal component and an interference signal component and a second input that receives a second signal including the interference component only. The first and second signals are then provided to the sampling circuitry. First, the phase of the interference component of the both the first and second signals is aligned. Next, the points in a wave cycle that the second signal is at a power minimum are detected. Finally, first signal is sampled close to the point when the second signal is at the power minimum to recover the desired signal component and suppress the interference component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2011
    Inventor: Daniel Alexander Weber
  • Patent number: 8022863
    Abstract: A method includes correlating a plurality of samples of a waveform into a correlation domain to provide a mainlobe defined by a first subset of a plurality of pulse-compressed samples and a plurality of sidelobes defined by a second subset of the plurality of pulse-compressed samples. A weight is calculated for at least one of the pulse-compressed samples, and one of a plurality of SVA filter values is selected to apply to the at least one pulse-compressed sample based on the calculated weight of the at least one pulse-compressed sample. The SVA filter values include one, one minus a quotient of one-half divided by the calculated weight of the at least one sample, and a scale factor having a value greater than zero and less than or equal to one. The selected SVA filter values are applied to the at least one pulse-compressed sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2011
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventor: Rao Nuthalapati
  • Patent number: 8014787
    Abstract: For use in a wireless network, systems and methods for identifying radar signals and for giving the wireless network a radar-avoidance capability. The system for identifying radar signals includes: (1) a pulse analyzer, associated with a wireless device, configured to make a determination whether a received pulse is a radar pulse and not a wireless network pulse and (2) a pulse reporter configured to generate, if the determination is positive, a report thereof for transmission over the wireless network. Another system gives the wireless network a radar-avoidance capability and includes: (1) a report receiver configured to receive reports via the wireless network from wireless devices thereof and (2) a report analyzer, associated with the report receiver, configured to analyze relationships among the reports to make a determination whether a sequence of radar pulses exists and, if the determination is positive, generate a radar transmission alert.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Agere Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Jan P. Kruys, Amiram Levi
  • Patent number: 7990311
    Abstract: A time sequence of raw radar data for a region of space is subdivided into a plurality of processing frames. The processing frames are subdivided into a plurality of processing cells and iteratively processed by selecting a single processing cell for processing, transforming the radar data of the processing cell to form transformed radar data in either the time domain or the Fourier domain. The transformed data is converted to a Power Spectrum Density Matrix in the case of the Fourier domain and a Time Space Correlation Matrix in the case of the time domain. This is smoothed and thresholded and then the clutter for the processing cell is estimated. Estimated local non-speckle clutter is estimated and removed from the transformed radar data, with the cleaned transformed radar data converted back to the time domain if required.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: Raytheon Applied Signal Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark D. Pauli, Jason Blind
  • Patent number: 7916068
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for improving the detection and discrimination of slow moving or stationary range-Doppler spread objects on or in close proximity to the ground (or sea surface). Invention detects, discriminates and separates radar returns from interference including ground clutter discretes via a coherent process for separating target returns from the myriad of received signals. Thus the method and apparatus improves the probability of detecting and declaring the presence or absence of an object at the same time that the probability of false declaration decreases. The method and apparatus may be applied to the processing of any over resolved object, including airborne radar.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Michael C. Wicks, Yuhong Zhang
  • Patent number: 7903024
    Abstract: Apparatus for providing moving target indicator (MTI) filtering in the presence of clutter for a radar receiver employing digital pulse compression to provide at an output a compressed digital pulse for application to the input of a MTI digital filter, including a digital adaptive filter of the same weight as the MTI filter and operative to receive the compressed pulse to provide at outputs of the filter a set of weighted filter coefficients, wherein the weighted coefficients are applied to the MTI filter during a predetermined clutter mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventors: Byron W. Tietjen, Melinda M. Au, Kevin P. Freeman
  • Publication number: 20110025546
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for sensing a target through a wall or obstruction by a Moving Target Indicator (MTI) radar sensor. In an exemplary embodiment, a series of radar pulses are transmitted at frequencies less than about 5 GHz. Radar return signals are received at a plurality of receive antenna array subapertures. The radar return signals are processed by a digital beamformer to form multiple beams. Target detection processing detects moving and stationary targets through a plurality of parallel target detection signal processing paths.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2009
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Inventors: Carl D. Cook, Scott E. Adcook, Michael D. Lee, Mena J. Ghebranious
  • Patent number: 7864106
    Abstract: A method and system for SNR enhancement in pulse-Doppler coherent target detection for applications in the fields of radar and ultrasound. In accordance with the method of the invention, complex signals are obtained for each of two or more sub-intervals of the time-on-target interval, allowing simultaneous range and Doppler measurements. A coherent integration is the performed on the signals to generate complex-valued folded matrices. The folded matrices are unfolded and target detection is then performed in a process involving one or more of the unfolded matrices. A pulse-Doppler coherent system is also provided configured for target detection by the method of the invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Elta Systems Ltd.
    Inventors: Ella Beilin, Jehezkel Grizim, Yacov Vagman, Alexander Lomes
  • Publication number: 20100302091
    Abstract: A method and system is provided for detecting and characterizing pulsed threat radar emitters through heavy in-band interference. System includes an advanced digital signal processing method provides spatial and temporal interference cancellation, super-resolution direction-finding, and high resolution spectrum analysis techniques. The system receives the digitized output of a discriminator bank and produces highly accurate threat pulse radio frequency estimates. The invention further provides a two-channel configuration for a DF subsystem, to perform adjacent-beam direction-finding through severe interference environments. The invention provides increased sensitivity, increased frequency accuracy, and up to 40 dB of increased interference look-through capability in ES system but remains transparent to ES system functioning and to ES system operators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Publication date: December 2, 2010
    Applicant: RADIX TECHNOLOGY, INC.
    Inventors: Stephen P. Bruzzone, Robert E. Shanafelt
  • Patent number: 7839321
    Abstract: Ground clutter is effectively separated from true signals echoed by a cable in the flight path of an aircraft, by encoding a transmitted pulse wave in a radar system with at least one transmit (TX) coding sequence, so that received signals echoed by the cable on which the pulse is incident and associated ground clutter are orthogonal or separable from one another. The TX coding sequence is altered into two receive (RX) coding sequences one of which corresponds to the cable and the other to the ground clutter. The two RX coding sequences are then correlated with the received signals, thereby separating the true signals echoed by the cable from the associated ground clutter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.
    Inventors: Tom T. Huang, Samson Chu, Yongsu B. Choe, Ronnie H. Kanagawa
  • Patent number: 7817083
    Abstract: Apparatus for providing moving target indicator (MTI) filtering in the presence of clutter for a radar receiver employing digital pulse compression to provide at an output a compressed digital pulse for application to the input of a MTI digital filter, including a digital adaptive filter of the same weight as the MTI filter and operative to receive the compressed pulse to provide at outputs of the filter a set of weighted filter coefficients, wherein the weighted coefficients are applied to the MTI filter during a predetermined clutter mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2010
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventor: Byron W. Tietjen
  • Publication number: 20100245157
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for improving the detection and discrimination of slow moving or stationary range-Doppler spread objects on or in close proximity to the ground (or sea surface). Invention detects, discriminates and separates radar returns from interference including ground clutter discretes via a coherent process for separating target returns from the myriad of received signals. Thus the method and apparatus improves the probability of detecting and declaring the presence or absence of an object at the same time that the probability of false declaration decreases. The method and apparatus may be applied to the processing of any over resolved object, including airborne radar.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2009
    Publication date: September 30, 2010
    Inventors: Michael C. Wicks, Yuhong Zhang
  • Patent number: 7755538
    Abstract: The present invention provides a radar apparatus including: a transmission pulse group generator configured to generate: a first transmission pulse group from a first transmission pulse train formed of N first transmission pulses (N>2, where N is an integer number) having constant first time intervals t1, by thinning a first transmission pulse out of the first transmission pulse train so that all the intervals ranging from t1 to (N?1)*t1 are held by pairs of first transmission pulses selected from the first transmission pulse group; and a second transmission pulse group from a second transmission pulse train formed of M second transmission pulses (M>2, where M is an integer number) having second time intervals t2 different from the first time intervals t1, by thinning a second transmission pulse out of the second transmission pulse train so that all time intervals ranging from t2 to (M?1)*t2 are held by pairs of second transmission pulses selected from the second transmission pulse group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Mitsuyoshi Shinonaga
  • Patent number: 7741992
    Abstract: Various embodiments are described herein for a moving target detector that processes input data to perform detection for a current range cell. The moving target detector includes a Doppler filter bank module for processing the input data to provide several Doppler outputs for the current range cell, a no-land-clutter path for processing several input data sets related to the several Doppler outputs to provide detection data by performing peak selection on each of the several input data sets and performing detection on the results of the peak selection, a land-clutter path for processing the several input data sets to provide detection data by performing Constant False Ala?n Rate (CFAR) detection on each of the several input data sets and merging the detection results; and a switching logic module for selecting one of the land-clutter path and the no-land-clutter path based on clutter information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2010
    Assignee: Raytheon Canada Limited
    Inventors: Jian Wang, Eli Brookner
  • Patent number: 7705730
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method and system for use of ranging MW to decrease MW intrusion detector false alarms. A Doppler microwave system may be provided that is capable of detecting an object range and adjusting the sensitivity of an alarm stage of a MW detector to account for object size and range. Multiple range limited MW stages may be configured for different ranges to determine the general range of the moving object. Based on signal levels present on these MW stages, an approximate object range may be determined. The sensitivity of the MW alarm stage is then adjusted based on a MW alarm state sensitivity vs. object range function that is optimized to alarm on humans and ignore small animals and insects. The method and system may be used in detection systems incorporating a MW sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventor: Gregory Royer
  • Patent number: 7646327
    Abstract: A target object motion estimation method using at least one subset of a complex SAR image. Coarse range cell alignment is performed on at least one subset of a complex SAR image. At least one subset is autofocused, thereby providing an estimated phase error function. The estimated phase error function yielded by autofocusing (or a manipulated version of the phase error function) may be analyzed to detect, characterize, and estimate target object motion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2010
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Will Freeman, Duane Roth
  • Patent number: 7576688
    Abstract: Moving objects are detected with a radar by collecting samples of a received signal over an integration period. The terms of a match function contain a product of a sample of said received signal and a delayed-in-time, Doppler-shifted replica of a transmission and depend on parameters that describe an object that caused a reflection of the transmission. The most probable values of the parameters are found by maximizing the match function through Fourier transforming a vector consisting of terms of the match function. Those of said products that contain a non-zero contribution of said delayed-in-time, Doppler-shifted replica of a transmission are actually computed while the others of said products are zero Only non-zero blocks of the products count as final terms to the vector to be Fourier transformed that have nonzero value while intermittent blocks that have zero value are left out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2009
    Assignee: Eigenor Oy
    Inventor: Markku Sakari Lehtinen
  • Patent number: 7570202
    Abstract: Methods for suppressing cross-track clutter in a sounding radar utilize polarimetric selectivity in two ways: (1) transmitting full-beam circular polarization and separating the desired signal of interest from the clutter based on the signal and clutter having different polarizations, and (2) transmitting and receiving circular polarization at the radar's nadir and elliptical polarization at the radar's off-nadir regions and filtering out the elliptical polarization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2009
    Assignee: The Johns Hopkins University
    Inventor: Russell K. Raney
  • Publication number: 20090174595
    Abstract: A synthetic aperture radar acquires an image of one or more objects and identifies them as targets. The objects are located in the proximity of clutter within the image such of trees, or a tree line. The radar acquires a SAR image having pixels descriptive of the clutter and the object(s). Regions having object pixels are identified within the synthetic aperture image using an object identification (algorithm), where the object identification (algorithm) utilizes one or more historically known target characteristics and one or more measured characteristic to obtain an output. Boundaries are identified for the one or more objects within the output using an object isolation, such as, for example, a Watershed transform. Clutter pixels are identified external to the one or more objects. The clutter pixels are suppressed from the synthetic aperture image thereby generating a clutter reduced image containing the one or more objects.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2009
    Publication date: July 9, 2009
    Inventors: Nader Khatib, Albert Ezekiel
  • Patent number: 7535410
    Abstract: A weight calculation method begins by storing a target reflection signal of a radar pulse received via an antenna in cells corresponding to positions along with a reception timing for a plurality of processing range cells having lengths equivalent to prescribed ranges on a time axis. The method continues by calculating weights by stage for the phase and amplitude of the target reflection signal to form a reception composite beam so that arrival directions of spurious elements become zero to an arrival direction of the target reflection signal by using values stored in the plurality of processing cells. The calculating of the weights monitors changes of specific variables indicating correlation values among stages in the plurality of processing stages to stop a shift to the next processing stage at the time when the variables exceed a reference value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2009
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Junichiro Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20090109083
    Abstract: Apparatus for providing moving target indicator (MTI) filtering in the presence of clutter for a radar receiver employing digital pulse compression to provide at an output a compressed digital pulse for application to the input of a MTI digital filter, including a digital adaptive filter of the same weight as the MTI filter and operative to receive the compressed pulse to provide at outputs of the filter a set of weighted filter coefficients, wherein the weighted coefficients are applied to the MTI filter during a predetermined clutter mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Inventor: Byron W. Tietjen
  • Patent number: 7522089
    Abstract: A system and method is presented for detecting and classifying slow-moving and hovering helicopters from a missile's look-down Doppler radar that is compatible with the existing base of Doppler radars. This approach uses definable attributes of a helicopter rotor assembly and its extended Doppler rotor return to differentiate “rotor samples” from other samples (steps 123, 125), extract features such as bandwidth, activity, angle, and shape from the rotor samples (step 127), and classify a potential target as a helicopter or other based on the extracted rotor features and the known attributes of the helicopter rotor assembly (step 129). A target report including a classification target, range, range-rate, and angle of the extended rotor return is suitably passed to a tracking processor (step 121).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Bernard Radza, Joseph Henning, Sunny Ali, John Mincer, Randal Walters
  • Publication number: 20090096662
    Abstract: Various embodiments are described herein for a moving target detector that processes input data to perform detection for a current range cell. The moving target detector includes a Doppler filter bank module for processing the input data to provide several Doppler outputs for the current range cell, a no-land-clutter path for processing several input data sets related to the several Doppler outputs to provide detection data by performing peak selection on each of the several input data sets and performing detection on the results of the peak selection, a land-clutter path for processing the several input data sets to provide detection data by performing Constant False Ala?n Rate (CFAR) detection on each of the several input data sets and merging the detection results; and a switching logic module for selecting one of the land-clutter path and the no-land-clutter path based on clutter information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2007
    Publication date: April 16, 2009
    Inventors: Jian Wang, Eli Brookner
  • Patent number: 7460059
    Abstract: Interfering clutter in radar pulses received by an airborne radar system from a radar transponder can be suppressed by developing a representation of the incoming echo-voltage time-series that permits the clutter associated with predetermined parts of the time-series to be estimated. These estimates can be used to estimate and suppress the clutter associated with other parts of the time-series.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2008
    Assignee: Sandia Corporation
    Inventors: Richard C. Ormesher, Robert M. Axline
  • Patent number: 7456780
    Abstract: Image reconstruction approaches that use standard Cartesian-sampled, frequency-domain SAR data, which can be collected by a platform with a single radar antenna, together with its associated metadata as the input and generate an output comprised of a set of images that show the directions of moving targets, estimates of their motions, and focused images of these moving targets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2008
    Assignee: Science Applications International Corporation
    Inventor: David Alan Garren
  • Patent number: 7439906
    Abstract: A radar receiver system includes a receiver, a processor including a Doppler Compensated Adaptive Pulse Compressor (DCAPC) algorithm, possible other intermediate processing and a target detector. The DCAPC algorithm processes samples of a radar return signal, applies Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE), or alternatively matched filtering, to the radar return signal to obtain initial radar impulse response estimates, computes power estimates, estimates a range cell Doppler shift for each range cell, computes range-dependent filters, applies the MMSE filters, and then repeats the cycle for subsequent reiterative stages until a desired length?L range window is reached, thereby resolving the scatterer from noise and other scatterers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Shannon D Blunt, Karl R Gerlach, Kevin J Smith
  • Publication number: 20080174475
    Abstract: A method for performing signal processing for accelerating moving targets, in one implementation, encompasses a method for performing coherent integration of pulses within a CPI for SMTI radar. In an embodiment, the method comprises the steps of determining the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) for each pulse, and multiplying the FFT by a pulse compression reference function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2006
    Publication date: July 24, 2008
    Inventor: David Charles Clark
  • Patent number: 7379017
    Abstract: A pulsed radar system uses phase noise compensation to reduce phase noise due to drift of the reference oscillator to enable detection of micro movements and particularly human motion such as walking, breathing or heartbeat. The noise level due to A/D sampling must be sufficiently low for the phase noise compensation to be effective. As this is currently beyond state-of-the-art for high bandwidth A/D converters used in traditional receiver design, the receiver is suitably reconfigured to use analog range gates and narrowband A/D sampling having sufficiently low noise level. As technology continues to improve, the phase compensation techniques may be directly applicable to the high bandwidth A/D samples in traditional receiver designs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2008
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Wesley H. Dwelly, Vinh N. Adams
  • Patent number: 7375679
    Abstract: This invention relates to state estimation after processing time-delayed measurements with unknown biases that may vary arbitrarily in time within known physical bounds. These biased measurements are obtained from systems characterized by state variables and by multidimensional parameters, for which the latter are also unknown and may vary arbitrarily in time within known physical bounds. If a measurement is time-late, apply the measurements to an out-of-sequence filter using a mean square optimization criterion that accounts for all sources of uncertainty and delay time, to produce estimates of the true states of the system. If the measurement is not time-late, apply the measurements to an in-sequence filter using a mean square optimization criterion that accounts for all sources of uncertainty to produce estimates of the true states of the system. The estimates are applied to one of (a) making a decision, (b) operating a control system, and (c) controlling a process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventors: Purusottam Mookerjee, Frank J. Reifler
  • Patent number: 7362257
    Abstract: A method and system is provided for detecting and characterizing pulsed threat radar emitters through heavy in-band interference. System includes an advanced digital signal processing method provides spatial and temporal interference cancellation, super-resolution direction-finding, and high resolution spectrum analysis techniques. The system receives the digitized output of a discriminator bank and produces highly accurate threat pulse radio frequency estimates. The invention further provides a two-channel configuration for a DF subsystem, to perform adjacent-beam direction-finding through severe interference environments. The invention provides increased sensitivity, increased frequency accuracy, and up to 40 dB of increased interference look-through capability in ES system but remains transparent to ES system functioning and to ES system operators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2008
    Assignee: Radix Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen P. Bruzzone, Robert E. Shanafelt
  • Patent number: 7345625
    Abstract: A polarimetric radar system transmits a signal which is nominally the desired polarization, but which may deviate therefrom. A calibration operation is performed using a symmetrical radar reflector, to determine the gains and phases of reception of two mutually orthogonal components of the received reflected signal which result in nulling of the two polarization components of the reflected signal. These gains and phases represent receive corrections which result in a simulation of perfect polarization purity on both transmission and reception. The corrections established during calibration are applied to the receive signals during normal (non-calibration) operation, to improve the effective polarization of the transmission and reception.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2008
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventor: Harry Urkowitz
  • Patent number: 7336218
    Abstract: A radar system in which a beat signal is generated by transmitting a transmission signal that is subjected to frequency modulation into a triangular wave and receiving a reflection signal from a target, the beat signal is sampled, and a window function is applied to yield a discrete frequency spectrum. When the window function is applied, a first window function having an amplitude that is gently attenuated from the center of the sampling period toward both sides thereof is applied in a lower frequency band in the frequency spectrum (at close range), and a second window function having an amplitude that is sharply attenuated from the center of the sampling period toward both sides thereof is applied in a higher frequency band in the frequency spectrum (at far range).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2008
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsu Nishimura, Toru Ishii
  • Patent number: 7333049
    Abstract: A radar transmitter is at a first location on a moving platform and illuminates a target with a sequence of frequency modulated radar pulses. The frequency modulated pulses are linear frequency modulated, i.e. chirped. The target reflects the frequency modulated radar pulses. A receiving antenna has a difference pattern null and receives the reflections from the target as a main scatterer and an ambiguity of the main scatterer. The sequence of pulses change the start of their frequency modulation (chirp) over a SAR array. The change in start frequency from pulse to pulse allows to shift the range ambiguity so as to align with the delay/Doppler difference pattern null of the antenna. Thus, both the main scatterer as well as the shifted range ambiguity are on the difference pattern null, facilitating their cancellation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Kapriel V. Krikorian, Robert A. Rosen
  • Patent number: 7333046
    Abstract: A system comprising a moving radar, a processing device, and a phase difference determination device is used to monitor a target. The moving radar has first and second phase centers that transmit and receive signals normal to a direction of movement of the radar. The processing device receives first and second ones of the received signals from the first and second phase centers, respectively, and performs a target motion compensation and target acceleration correction for each of the first and second received signals to produce first and second images. The phase difference determination device determines a phase difference image from a comparison of the first and second images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: The Mitre Corporation
    Inventors: Richard P. Perry, Probal K. Sanyal, David Matthew Zasada
  • Patent number: 7327307
    Abstract: An adaptive waveform radar system transmits a selected waveform of a family of related waveforms and either phase shifts or bit shifts the radar return signal for correlating with the other waveforms of the family. In some embodiments, phase shifting may be performed to null an unwanted target or clutter, while bit shifting may be performed to enhance a desired target, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, the bits of the return signal may be either phase shifted or bit shifted to match a bit of each one of the other waveforms of the family prior to correlation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Vinh Adams, Wesley Dwelly
  • Patent number: 7327305
    Abstract: The invention relates to a process for the evaluating a received signal of an SAR/MTI pulsed radar system that transmits SAR and MTI pulses with respective definable pulse repetition frequency PRF_SAR and PRF_MTI, such that the received signal is a superimposition consisting of echo pulse sequences of SAR and MTI echo pulse signals. According to the invention, in the received echo pulse sequence of the received signal, each SAR echo from an area of interest is evaluated SAR process. The remaining pulses of the received echo pulse sequence of the received signal are evaluated in using an MTI process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: EADS Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Andreas Loehner, Roland Drescher
  • Publication number: 20070285303
    Abstract: A system and method is presented for detecting and classifying slow-moving and hovering helicopters from a missile's took-down Doppler radar that is compatible with the existing base of Doppler radars. This approach uses definable attributes of a helicopter rotor assembly and its extended Doppler rotor return to differentiate “rotor samples” from other samples (steps 123, 125), extract features such as bandwidth, activity, angle, and shape from the rotor samples (step 127), and classify a potential target as a helicopter or other based on the extracted rotor features and the known attributes of the helicopter rotor assembly (step 129). A target report including a classification target, range, range-rate, and angle of the extended rotor return is suitably passed to a tracking processor (step 121).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2006
    Publication date: December 13, 2007
    Inventors: Bernard P. Radza, Joseph Henning, Sunny Ali, John Mincer, Randal Walters
  • Publication number: 20070279278
    Abstract: In order to generate a signal for canceling a chirped signal, a transmitter generates a cancellation signal along with the transmitted signal, using a single term variable complex gain multiplier adapted to cancel the chirped signal only at its instantaneous frequency, rather than attempting to cancel it with a complex FIR filter that works over the entire bandwidth of the chirped signal. The cancellation signal is varied in amplitude and phase as a function of the frequency of the chirped transmit signal for which it is intended to compensate. Since the signal that is to be cancelled is essentially sinusoidal but swept through a frequency range, the cancellation signal for the instantaneous transmit signal needs to be swept in both amplitude and phase in unison with the change in frequency of the transmit signal in order to accommodate gain and phase changes in the transmitted signal as a function of frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Publication date: December 6, 2007
    Applicant: M/A-Com, Inc.
    Inventor: Todd Alan Stewart