PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF A HIGH-SPEED MULTICHANNEL CORRELATOR WITHFIBEROPTIC DELAYS

We discuss architecture, subsystems, and applications of a multichanne l digital correlator we constructed by using a combination of optical and electrical delays. Our system is capable of a l-ns bin width in no rmal operation, when a derandomizer is used at the input stage and a 0 .25-ns bin width when the derandomizer is bypassed. When switchable de lay lines are used, the 16 real-time channels can access a 160-ns dela y range, providing up to 160 channels at 1-ns bin width or 640 channel s at 0.25-ns bin width. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.