Application of a Channelized Energy Detector for Digital Wideband ESM Receivers

It is not an easy job to select and adjust a general-purpose detector for digital wideband Electronic Support Measures (ESM) receivers. Optimal detectors and parameters' adjustment depend on many variables, e.g., the receiver characteristics, application and system's constraints. In this paper, we study the performance of a FFT-based channelized energy-based detector (CED) for ESM receivers, in which time integration is based on logic-OR and binary integration. We show that, for the studied Electronic Warfare scenario, the CED outperforms other detectors: total energy, GLRT and ambiguity function-based detectors. This investigation points the CED as an interesting option for ESM receivers.