A survey of analog-to-digital converter technology for radar applications

The first section of this report discusses sample and hold devices (SHD) which are required prior to the analog to digital converter (ADC) in most radar applications. The SHDs discussed had acquisition times of 10 microsecs or less. plots of SHD droop rate and aperture uncertainty versus acquisition time are presented. The next section contains details on a variety of commercial off the shelf ADCs that have sampling rates greater than 100 KHz. They are compared by resolution, sampling rate, packaging, logic family, size, cost, power requirements, and temperature stability. Finally, brief descriptions of ADCs in development are discussed, and a resolution versus sampling rate comparison of noncommercial ADCs being manufactured by radar houses and their suppliers is presented. The performance envelopes of the commercial and noncommercial ADCs are then overlayed on the estimated 1988 Radar and ELINT resolution and sampling rate requirements.