Illumination and Data Collection Techniques for High Performance Time-Integrating Correlators

Abstract

Time-Integrating Correlators (TIC) are analog optical computers designed to perform the correlation of two signals. They are characterized by the ability to correlate large bandwidth signals at very high speed. The many possible ways to build TICs are well documented in the literature¹. Numerous applications of these processors have been identified in areas such as the analysis of DNA sequences², spread spectrum signal processing¹, finger print identification and high speed searches of large unstructured databases.