Trends in radar signal processing

It is thought that the commercial very large scale intergration (VLSI) efforts, along with the military Very High Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) program, will be of overwhelming importance in the future development of digital radar signal processing and data processing. Sucess in VLSI/VHSIC goals will also reduce software costs through the use of oversized low-cost signal processor hardware, for example oversizing by a factor of two may reduce the software cost by about one-third. Programmable signal processors will continue to grow in importance in radar systems. The advances being made in integrated digital circuitry are revolutionizing radar data processing for functions such as scheduling and target tracking. Certain functions, however, will continue to be better implemented with analog devices, such as surface acoustic wave devices, as long as digital processing remains too complex or expensive or where low cost is favored over flexibility. The main effect of VLSI/VHSIC will be the development of high-throughput, high-density, low-wattage, special-function chips that will have wide application.