HTS Channeliser for Use in an ESM Reciever System

An important function of an ESM receiver is the acquisition and identification of all signals that may be present in the EW environment. Ideally the receiver requires a high probability of intercept. Current receiver types include wide open systems which suffer from signal overlap and scanning superheterodyne receivers which have a low probability of intercept against some signals. The ideal solution would be channelisation of the search bandwidth with each channel monitored continuously. To obtain high frequency resolution many narrow bandwidth channels are required. If conventional filter technology is utilised the insertion losses and channeliser size may be unacceptably large. By using high temperature superconductor (HTS) materials, a compact charneliser with low loss filters may be realised. This paper describes the design and build of a demonstrator, the principle of which could ultimately cover 2-18GHz operation. This uses 100MHz bandwidth superconducting filters in order to achieve acceptable size, weight, power dissipation and cool-down time.