ASA 124th Meeting New Orleans 1992 October

4pEA14. CAMAC-based, pulsed-mode, integrated system for underwater acoustical measurements.

Arthur Citrin

Real Time Systems, Inc., 152 S. MacQuesten Pkwy., Mt. Vernon, NY 10550

An efficient and highly versatile measurement system is described as presently utilized in a number of naval and commercial test facilities. Salient features of the CAMAC platform are covered with special emphasis on the applicability of this packaging scheme to the mixed analog and digital needs of acoustical instrumentation. Included is a general overview of the system block diagram and expandability to multiple channel measurements. Basic design considerations yielding operation over wide frequency range with superior phase fidelity and stability are presented. Internal signal processing capabilities both in time and frequency are summarized along with schemes for internal data storage and transfer to host computer. A range of internal sinusoidal and complex signal generators is described including high-speed arbitrary waveform generators and linear or complex frequency sweeps. Special noise reduction features for random noise and power line frequency-related disturbances are discussed as well as the hands-on controls for facilitation of initial acquisition window setup. Approaches for optimization of signal dynamic range are outlined together with the hardware features that assist in this goal. The presentation in general supplements other invited facility papers that utilize the described system but treat it as a black box.