The fiftieth anniversary of Surface Acoustic Waves devices applied to the Pulse Compression in modern radar
The adoption of Pulse Compression was an important milestone in the history of modern radar. It ended the race for peak powers that prevailed hitherto, and was the first practical application of the new detection theories. But due to the technological difficulties encountered, its implementation was delayed until the early 60s.
As it often happens in the innovation process, the solution came from a combination of two fields that had a priori little in common : the electromagnetic detection and the ultrasonic materials analysis. The result in 1965 was the emergence of Surface Acoustic Waves (SAW) devices, which have drastically changed the architecture of the radar receiver, and given rise to a new industrial area.
But this innovation was as ephemeral as decisive : scarcely ten years later, after 1975, the progress of digital signal processing have made them gradually obsolete. The “SAW” were no more than a transitional stage of the mutation from classic to modern radar. But they remain as the ultimate and most elaborate stage of the analogical signal processing.
During this session historians and radarists, some of them actors of the time, will share their vision of this key period in the history of radar
