Residue arithmetic techniques for optical processing of adaptive phased array radars

Residue arithmetic techniques which can be implemented optically are investigated for applicability to adaptive phased array radar processors. It is shown that neither the bit-serial nor the bit-parallel convolutional methods can compete favorably with emerging digital electronic techniques, but that specialized forms of residue arithmetic processors may hold great potential in this area. A brief review of the salient features of residue arithmetic is presented, and Gauss reduction of linear systems is illustrated by a procedure that is amenable to optical implementation. The details of a direct algorithm are discussed based on Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization, which allows solution of large linear systems in residue arithmetic without the excessive growth of the principal modulus that is usually encountered in this approach. A pipelined architecture for performing this algorithm is also described. (Author)