Near real time (NRT) Optical Signal Processor

The NRT Optical Signal Processor is a laboratory testbed for the development of analog optical signal processing technology. The system incorporates an RF interferometric optical excisor with an optical correlator as well as pre- and post-excision optical power spectrum analyzers. Too often, the postprocessing of electronic intelligence (ELINT) data is difficult due to a cluttered collection environment. At any given time in a collection scenario, an ELINT collection system may be receiving and collecting millions of pulses per second. Many of these signals are interfering with signals of interest or are simply mundane. The NRT Optical Signal Processor is designed to demonstrate how optics can play a role in the reduction of these processing requirements. Installation was planned for September 1992 in the ELINT Development Facility (EDF) at the Rome Laboratory. The NRT system operates over a 200-MHz band and in breadboard testing has demonstrated 50-dB dynamic range while creating notches as great as 30 dB for two adjacent channels and 45-50 dB for greater numbers of channels