A flexible processor for a digital adaptive array radar

A digital beamforming processor for an adaptive array radar is described. The functionality and the architecture of the processor are strongly driven by a goal of achieving adaptive null depths in the 60-dB to 70-dB range, which necessitates substantial preprocessing of each channel. In particular, conversion to baseband quadrature channels is accomplished digitally using a single A/D converter per channel, and FIR (finite impulse response) equalizing filters are employed in each channel to match channel transfer functions. The processor is highly modular, and this not only distributes the total processing load, but also the I/O (input/output) bandwidth requirement. This is accomplished by distributing the adaptive beamforming algorithm systolically across a linear array of processing nodes. The processor is expandable to a different number of channels and sufficiently flexible to be applied to other problems of an array signal processing nature. Experimental data presented demonstrate that the processor is capable of supporting channel-to-channel cancellation of interfering signals to the level of -65 dB