A unique concept has been developed that uses the performance advantages of wide bandwidth acoustic charge transport (ACT) delay lines and transversal filters to achieve low probability of intercept and jam resistance in a spread spectrum communications link. Rather than the usual stored reference approaches that exhibit either long acquisition and synchronization cycles or limited processing gain and jamming margin, the approach uses a transmit-led reference configuration in which the processing gain is set by the product of the transmitted bandwidth and the integration time. The processor configuration features virtually unlimited processing gain potential, low delectability, and excellent jamming margins to noise and pulse signals. This configuration has not been exploited in the past primarily because of its particular susceptibility to CW jamming. The advent of ACT signal processing allows a high performance adaptive CW excision circuit to be incorporated in the synchronization processor to add the required jam resistance. The goal of the program is to achieve processing gain in excess of 30 dB. A breadboard processor using existing ACT subsystems will be constructed and tested to provide data for concept optimization.
