Consideration is given to an advanced version of the acoustooptic time-and-space integrating (TSI) approach to real-time SAR imaging for severe power and size constraints applications. The concept incorporates electronic programmability and has the flexibility to compensate for the anomalies of the SAR imaging problem in a dynamically changing data collection scenario. Particular attention is given to a computationally intensive spotlight mode and real-time acoustooptic programmable imaging and display for SAR. It is concluded that all of the electronically programmed signals are straightforward to calculate and can be handled by standard digital processors, at real-time rates without taxing their capabilities. The effective distribution of the computational load between optics and electronics indicates that this SAR architecture is potentially compact and has low power requirements for both the electronic and optical portions of the processor.

Date Published: 1 October 1990
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 1291, Optical and Digital Gallium Arsenide Technologies for Signal Processing Applications, (1 October 1990); doi: 10.1117/12.20985

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1291:
Optical and Digital Gallium Arsenide Technologies for Signal Processing Applications
Mark P. Bendett; Daniel H. Butler Jr.; Arati Prabhakar; Andrew C. Yang, Editor(s)