Array-error estimation method for multi-channel SAR systems in azimuth

For multi-channel synthetic aperture radar（SAR） systems, since the minimum antenna area constraint is eliminated,wide swath and high resolution SAR image can be achieved.However, the unavoidable array errors, consisting of channel gainphase mismatch and position uncertainty, significantly degrade the performance of such systems. An iteration-free method is proposed to simultaneously estimate position and gain-phase errors.In our research, the steering vectors corresponding to a pair of Doppler bins within the same range bin are studied in terms of their rotational relationships. The method is based on the fact that the rotational matrix only depends on the position errors and the frequency spacing between the paired Doppler bins but is independent of gain-phase error. Upon combining the projection matrices corresponding to the paired Doppler bins, the position errors are directly obtained in terms of extracting the rotational matrix in a least squares framework. The proposed method, when used in conjunction with the self-calibration algorithm, performs stably as well as has less computational load, compared with the conventional methods. Simulations reveal that the proposed method behaves better than the conventional methods even when the signal-to-noise ratio（SNR） is low.

REVERSE-RANGE-DOPPLER METHOD FOR AUTOMATED GEOCODING SAR IMAGES

Range-Doppler (RD) method and Reverse-Range-Doppler (RRD) method are combined together to achieve automatic geocoding of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image quickly and accurately in the paper. The RD method is firstly used to locate the four corners of the image, then the other pixels of the image can be located by Reverse-Range-Doppler (RRD) method. Resampling is performed at last. The approach has an advantage over previous techniques in that it does not require ground control points and is independent of spacecraft attitude knowledge or control. It can compensate the shift due to the assumed Doppler frequency in SAR image preprocessing. RRD simplifies the process of RD, therefore speeds up the computation. The experimental results show that a SAR image can be automated geocoded in 30 s using the single CPU (3 GHz) with 1 G memory and an accuracy of 10 m is attainable with this method.

Channel Error Estimation Methods Comparison under Different Conditions for Multichannel HRWS SAR Systems

Multichannel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in azimuth can resolve the contradiction between high resolution and wide swath faced with traditional SAR imaging. However, channel errors will degrade the performance of imaging. This paper compares the performances of four channel error estimation algorithms under different clutter distributions and SNR conditions. Further, explanations are given for performance differences of the four algorithms, which provide evidence for method selection in engineering applications.

Design of a low power 10 bit 300 ksps multi-channel SAR ADC for wireless sensor network applications

This paper presents a low power 10 bit 300 ksps successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter （SAR ADC） which is applied in wireless sensor network （WSN） applications. A single ended energy- saving split capacitor DAC array and a latch comparator with a rail to rail input stage are utilized to implement the ADC, which can reduce power dissipation while expanding the full scale input range and improve the signal-to- noise ratio （SNR）. For power optimization the supply voltage of the SAR ADC is designed to be as low as 2 V. Four analog input channels are designed which make the ADC more suitable for WSN applications. The prototype circuit is fabricated using 3.3 V, 0.35μm 2P4M CMOS technology and occupies an active chip area of 1.23 mm2. The test results show that the power dissipation is only 200μW at a 2 V power supply and a sampling rate of 166 ksps. The calculated SNR is 58.25 dB, the ENOB is 9.38 bit and the FOM is 4.95 p J/conversion-step.

FAST ALGORITHM FOR NON-UNIFORMLY SAMPLED SIGNAL SPECTRUM RECONSTRUCTION

In this paper, a fast algorithm to reconstruct the spectrum of non-uniformly sampled signals is proposed. Compared with the original algorithm, the fast algorithm has a higher computational efficiency, especially when sampling sequence is long. Particularly, a transformation matrix is built, and the reconstructed spectrum is perfectly synthesized from the spectrum of every sampling channel. The fast algorithm has solved efficiency issues of spectrum reconstruction algorithm, and making it possible for the actual application of spectrum reconstruction algorithm in multi-channel Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

A multi-channel fully differential programmable integrated circuit for neural recording application

A multi-channel, fully differential programmable chip for neural recording application is presented. The integrated circuit incorporates eight neural recording amplifiers with tunable bandwidth and gain, eight 4thorder Bessel switch capacitor filters, an 8-to-1 analog time-division multiplexer, a fully differential successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter （SAR ADC）, and a serial peripheral interface for communication. The neural recording amplifier presents a programmable gain from 53 dB to 68 dB, a tunable low cut-off frequency from 0.1 Hz to 300 Hz, and 3.77μVrms input-referred noise over a 5 kHz bandwidth. The SAR ADC digitizes signals at maximum sampling rate of 20 μS/s per channel and achieves an ENOB of 7.4. The integrated circuit is designed and fabricated in 0.18-μm CMOS mix-signal process. We successfully performed a multi-channel in-vivo recording experiment from a rat cortex using the neural recording chip.