Design and performance characteristics of an electro-optical correlator tube

An electro-optical correlator system may use a two-dimensional real time varying optical image as one of the correlator inputs. A second input is a real time varying voltage comprising the desired correlated signal plus a random or noise signal. The correlator tube multiplies these signals together and integrates the product for a time period of the order of one second. The read out of the integrated signal will contain only the correlated component of the input signal.