Receiver

A method of range profile digitization for converting a repeating analog input signal into a time series of digital amplitude values, the digitization comprising:

• comparing the received analog input signal with a threshold input and quantizing the analog input signal based on said comparison to output a binary value quantized output signal;
• sampling the signal by a plurality of samplers each arranged to sample and hold the signal upon receipt of a trigger signal;
• and
• for each sampler:
• directing the output from the sampler to a selected one of a plurality of decoders associated with that sampler based on a selector input.

A range profile digitization circuit for converting a repeating analog input signal into a time series of digital amplitude values, the circuit comprising:

• a differencer arranged to receive the analog input signal and a threshold input signal and arranged to output a differencer signal being the difference between the analog input signal and the threshold input signal;
• a plurality of clocked comparators, each clocked comparator being arranged to sample the differencer signal upon receipt of a trigger signal and each clocked comparator being arranged to output and hold a quantized signal;
• and
• for each clocked comparator, a decoder which is arranged to decode the quantized signal into a digital value.

A method of range profile digitization for converting a repeating analog input signal into a time series of digital amplitude values, the digitization comprising:

• taking the difference between the received analog input signal and a threshold input signal;
• providing the difference signal to a plurality of clocked comparators;
• each clocked comparator sampling the difference signal upon receipt of a trigger signal and outputting a quantized signal;
• and
• for each clocked comparator, decoding the quantized signal to produce a digital value.