Signal Detection by Arrays with Arbitrary Processors and Detectors

The signal‐detection characteristics of local arrays of transducers that are used to detect the presence of a plane‐wave random signal in an isotropic noise background are analyzed for the situation in which the transducers are followed by identical nonlinear processors. The resulting signals are summed and detected by a square‐law device with a low‐pass filter. The performance of this system is compared to that for a system with linear processors and a square‐law detector. Also analyzed are the signal detection characteristics of an array with linear processors and a non square‐law detector. The performance is also compared to that for the linear system with a square‐law detector. Results indicate that, for maximum output signal‐to‐noise (S/N) ratio, the system with linear processors and a square‐law detector is optimum for both situations considered above. The degradation in performance caused by deviations from the optimum is not great, however. On an output‐signal basis, defined by the difference betw...