One-Bit Signal Processing for Target Parameter Estimation in Active Sensing Systems

One problem of paramount importance in today’s modern active sensing systems is target parameter estimation, where active sensing is defined as transmitting a signal toward a target of interest and extracting the target’s properties from the returned signal. In this dissertation, we put forward novel approaches to estimate the parameter estimation of both stationary and moving targets using only one-bit sampled data of their respective return signal. One-bit sampling is carried out by continuously comparing the signal of interest to a time-varying threshold, which can be done at very high rates that is required by many modern applications. After careful analysis of the case, we show that the performance of such systems increases with an increase in the length of the transmit sequence, to the point that it reaches the performance of the case of having access to full precision data. The proposed method depicts promising results, which makes application of one-bit sampling in active sensing systems a very suitable replacement for analog to digital converter in numerous modern applications.