A new correlation radiometer

A correlation radiometer is described in which the input signal is divided among
p
amplifiers. The outputs of the
p
amplifiers are cross-correlated in all possible combinations and the cross-products added to give the system output. It is shown that as
p
goes to infinity the sensitivity of the radiometer approaches that of an ideal total-power system. A practical system of six amplifiers offers an improvement of 2.2 dB over a conventional two-amplifier correlation radiometer, or an improvement of 5.2 dB over a Dicke system.