Frequency Activity Detectors

Superior Engineering

Spectrum Microwave manufactures a range of Frequency Activity Detectors (FADs) which perform frequency measurement of an RF pulse and output data in as little as 15 ns.

Spectrum Microwave’s ability to integrate its own high performance broadband channelizers, high Q filters and low loss detectors allows them to provide stable outputs over temperature, a more tolerable RF match for the filter and improved Signal to Noise ratio to make this line of Frequency Activity Detectors (FADs) superior to most other models on the market today.

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Superior Engineering

Spectrum Microwave manufactures a range of Frequency Activity Detectors (FADs) which perform frequency measurement of an RF pulse and output data in as little as 15 ns.

Our ability to integrate our own high performance broadband channelizers, high Q filters and low loss detectors allows us to provide stable outputs over temperature, a more tolerable RF match for the filter and improved signal to noise ratio. These features make this line make this line of Frequency Activity Detectors (FADs) superior to most other models on the market today.

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Optimum Performance

These Frequency Activity Detectors (FAD) are ideal for receivers which must operate in very high pulse density environments. Spectrum Microwave integrates the detector diode and video choke network directly on the Suspended Substrate Stripline circuit. The correct impedance match is presented to the output of the channel filter by a direct 'tap' to the last resonator.

The video bandwidth of the detector circuit is chosen to ensure optimum probability of detection for a given minimum pulse width False Alarm Rate requirement and throughout delay.

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Custom Designs

Many advanced EW receivers, particularly those associated with ECM jamming systems do not require the high resolution frequency information associated with a DFD or IFM based receiver. This is typically the case where identification of a single pulse present within a broad frequency band is required to be detected and instantaneously down-converted to an IF band.

An example of such a requirement would be the RF front end of a Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM). In this situation the receiver is serving merely to monitor activity and very rapidly flag any activity detected by giving an accurate but not necessarily high resolution indication of frequency.

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Diverse Configurations

The Spectrum Microwave Frequency Activity Detectors (FAD) configuration consists of an RF input, which may be fed by a signal conditioning network as in the case of the IFM, followed by a detector integrated into each channel and a combination of video and logic circuitry whose function is to detect when activity in a particular channel has crossed a predetermined threshold.

A crucial element in the design is the channel filter characteristics and their contiguous frequency coverage.

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Proven Techniques

The contiguous coverage is achieved by resistively splitting the input signal between two non contiguous bandpass channel multiplexers. This allows less than a 3 dBc crossover to be achieved and simplifies the multiplexing requirement.

The multiplexers themselves are designed as individual lossy or pseudo-lossy manifold multiplexers in which each channel filter is coupled to the manifold feed. This technique is well proven and is extensively used throughout Spectrum Microwave’s Switched Filter and Switched Multiplexer Products.

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Superior Accuracy

The physical realization is Suspended Substrate Stripline (SSS) printed combline filters inductively coupled to a printed manifold. The Suspended Substrate Stripline (SSS) technology allows for extremely accurate channel crossover frequencies to be achieved with very low temperature drift.

Such implementation ensures excellent unit to unit performance tracking and tracking with Spectrum Microwave 's Switched Multiplexer and Frequency Synthesizers. The filter networks are optimized for low propagation delay and often incorporate non-adjacent resonator coupling to give optimum passband performance in conjunction with high selectivity. The combination of accurate, reproducible crossovers and narrow crossover regions reduces the ambiguity zone around the crossover.
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