1.6 GHz Low-Power Cross-Correlator System Enabling Geostationary Earth Orbit Aperture Synthesis
Journal article, 2014

We present a 64-channel cross-correlator system for space-borne synthetic aperture imaging. Two different types of ASICs were developed to fit into this system: An 8-channel comparator ASIC implemented in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS process technology performs A/D conversion, while a single 64-channel digital cross-correlator ASIC implemented in a 65 nm CMOS process performs the signal processing. The digital ASIC handles 2016 cross-correlations at up to 3.6 GS/s and has a power dissipation of only 0.13 mW/correlation/GHz at a supply voltage of 1 V. The comparator ASIC can handle sample rates of at least 4.5 GS/s with a power dissipation of 47 mW/channel or 1 GS/s with a power dissipation of 17 mW/channel. The assembled system consists of a single board measuring a mere 136 x 136 mm(2) and weighing only 135 g. The assembled system demonstrates crosstalk of 0.04% between neighboring channels and stability of 800 s. We provide ASIC and system-board measurement results that demonstrate that aperture synthesis can be a viable approach for Earth observation from a geostationary Earth orbit.

synthetic imaging

Cross-correlator

interferometry

space application

comparator

Author

Erik J Ryman

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Computer Engineering (Chalmers)

A. Emrich

Omnisys Instruments

Stefan Andersson

Omnisys Instruments

Lars Svensson

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Computer Engineering (Chalmers)

Per Larsson-Edefors

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Computer Engineering (Chalmers)

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits

0018-9200 (ISSN)

Vol. 49 11 2720-2729 6913568

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Subject Categories

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1109/jssc.2014.2354648

More information

Latest update

9/6/2018 1