Real-Time Synthetic Aperture Imaging
This research enables high-resolution synthetic aperture radiometry by greatly improving the integration and energy efficiency of the mixed-signal baseband cross- correlator. Imaging radiometry over millimeter-wave frequencies (30–300 GHz) has the potential to transform security, health care, and remote sensing. Applications include sensing of concealed weapons, detection of skin cancer, and mapping of water in the atmosphere. Originally conceived for radio astronomy, synthetic aperture radiometry achieves a high resolution image with a simple frontend and a relatively small number of antenna elements. However, the complexity and processing required from the mixed-signal baseband have hampered use in energy constrained and size constrained applications. We introduce the first large-scale fully integrated high-speed correlator that incorporates both analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and high-speed digital correlation in a single power-efficient IC. Operating at 1.5 GHz, the prototype achieves 6.144T correlations/s and consumes 3.735 W.
J. Bell, P. Knag, S. Sun, Y Lim, T. Chen, J. Fredenburg, C. Chen, C. Zhai, A. Rocca, N. Collins, A. Tamez, J. Pernillo, J. Correll, Z. Zhang and M.P. Flynn, “A 1.5GHz 6.144Tcorrelations/s 64x64 Cross-Correlator with 128 Integrated ADCs for Real-Time Synthetic Aperture Imaging,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, May 2017.