US 12,627,312 B1Granted

Multi-Nyquist correlator for frequency measurement

AssigneeBAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.

InventorsMichael A. Zalucki, Daniel Wasson, Anthony J. Crawford

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Abstract

A multi-Nyquist correlator. An example system includes a first analog to digital converter (ADC) configured to operate at a first sampling frequency and a second ADC configured to operate at a second sampling frequency different from the first sampling frequency. Each of first and second ADCs may receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) pulses, and respectively generate first and second ADC outputs. First and second digital receivers of the system respectively process the first and second ADC outputs and respectively generate first and second pluralities of pulse description data signals (PDDs). A correlator of the system corelates PDDs of the first and second pluralities of PDDs, to determine which RF pulses received are related to each other. With this relationship determined, the true Nyquist zone can be determined, and the true RF frequency can be calculated. A frequency measurement module may be used to measure frequency of received signal.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

a first analog to digital converter (ADC) configured to operate at a first sampling frequency, and a second ADC configured to operate at a second sampling frequency different from the first sampling frequency, wherein each of the first and second ADCs are configured to receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) pulses, and generate a first ADC output and a second ADC output, respectively;
a first digital receiver to process the first ADC output and generate a first plurality of pulse description data signals (PDDs), and a second digital receiver to process the second ADC output and generate a second plurality of PDDs, wherein each PDD of the first and second plurality of PDDs is indicative of attributes of a corresponding RF pulse of the plurality of RF pulses;
a correlator configured to corelate a first PDD of the first plurality of PDDs with a second PDD of the second plurality of PDDs, and generate a correlation signal indicative of the correlation of the first PDD with the second PDD, wherein each of the first PDD and the second PDD includes attributes of a same RF pulse of the plurality of RF pulses;
a third ADC configured to operate at a third sampling frequency different from each of the first and second sampling frequencies, wherein the third ADC is configured to receive the plurality of RF pulses, and generate a third ADC output;
and
a third digital receiver to process the third ADC output and generate a third plurality of PDDs;
wherein to corelate the first PDD of the first plurality of PDDs with the second PDD of the second plurality of PDDs, the correlator is configured to:
compare the first PDD with each of two or more PDDs of the second plurality of PDDs and two or more PDDs of the third plurality of PDDs, to determine a first match between the first PDD and the second PDD, and to further determine a second match between the first PDD and a third PDD of the third plurality of PDDs;
and
select, from the first and second matches, the first match between the first PDD and the second PDD, thereby correlating the first PDD with the second PDD.

7 more elements

A method comprising:

operating a first analog to digital converter (ADC), a second ADC, and a third ADC at a first sampling frequency, a second sampling frequency, and a third sampling frequency, respectively;
sampling, by each of the first, second, and third ADCs, a plurality of radio frequency (RF) pulses, to respectively generate a first ADC output, a second ADC output, and a third ADC output;
processing each of the first, second, and third ADC outputs, to respectively generate a first plurality of pulse description data signals (PDDs), a second plurality of PDDs, and a third plurality of PDDs, wherein each PDD of the first, second, and third plurality of PDDs is indicative of one or more attributes of a corresponding RF pulse of the plurality of RF pulses;
comparing a first PDD of the first plurality of PDDs with each of two or more PDDs of the second plurality of PDDs and two or more PDDs of the third plurality of PDDs;
correlating the first PDD and with a second PDD of the second plurality of PDDs, based at least in part on the comparing, wherein the first PDD and the second PDD are indicative of one or more attributes of a same RF pulse;
and
measuring a frequency of the RF pulse, based at least in part on the first PDD, the second PDD, the first sampling frequency, and the second sampling frequency.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.