Signal detection: future receiver technologies

The analysis of signals received in an ESM system increasingly requires some form of pre-detection processing to aid in the sorting of signals, in discrimination of small signals proximate to powerful emitters, in the detection and processing of low energy signals, and for additional characterisation. It is desirable to achieve such processing in the most efficient and cost-effective manner, and there are three competing technologies which can be applied, RF, optical and digital. This paper presents an overview of the potential performance offered by the digital option in the context of a frequency channeliser for an ESM receiver