Thomas L. Vogelsong

Architecture for ultrasonic imaging

An ultrasonic imaging processing system includes transducers and means to generate in an analog fashion, in-phase and quadrature phase signals. These signals are converted to digital form and a butterfly phase rotator circuit is employed to correct for phase differences in beam steering and focusing. In particular, speed and simplicity is achieved through the utilization of read only memory means providing appropriate function values for phase correction in conjunction with digital multiplication and summing circuitry.

The Charge Injection Device (CID) As A Stellar Tracking Sensor

A 128 x 128 element CID imager was operated in a simulated stellar tracking environment and ev8luated f8r temporal and pattern noise and spectral response over a temperature range of -40oC to +25oC. The test devices were fabricated on long-lifetime bulk silicon material and utilized very thin upper-level polysilicon electrodes for enhanced spectral response. A standard microcomputer was used to generate all control signals and to collect and process performance data. The results of this program were used to predict the performance of a 400 x 400 CID array designed specifically for stellar-tracking.

Charge Injection Device As A Candidate Sensor For Stellar Tracking

In the past few years a family of solid state sensors called Charge Transfer Devices (CTDs) have been developed for the television industry. These devices show promise of being superior to the Image Dissector as a stellar sensor and a number of technology programs have begun to develop around the devices. Inherent advantages of these devices are: low voltage requirements, insensitivity to magnetic fields, good linearity, and low weight and power. Two basic types of CTDs have been developed; the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and the Charge Injection Device (CID). This paper discusses the stellar tracking advantages of the CID over other devices and the work done by the General Electric Co. in developing a CID particularly suited for this application.

Charge Injection Device Focal Plane Processor For Video Bandwidth Compression

A charge injection device (CID) solid-state video sensor/focal plane processor is described which can be used to implement Hadamard transform techniques to reduce video band-width. This device can be operated in two modes. In one mode, the output is a normal video signal. In the second mode, the output is the Hadamard transform of the image. This approach offers an opportunity to relieve the small size and low power requirements imposed by mini-RPV and guided weapon antijam video data link applications by performing the transform processing function of the airborne encoder directly on the image plane. A description of the CID imager, the one- and two-dimensional Hadamard transform implementation of the focal plane processing chip, and preliminary test results are included.