A surface acoustic wave (SAW) chirp signal processor having a piezoelectric substrate, an array of input transducers and an array of output transducers. In its chirp compression mode, the device has chirp signals applied in parallel to its input transducers and produces compressed output pulses at its output transducers, corresponding to selected chirp rates. The input transducers are successively offset with respect to a focal point on the array of output transducers, by distances that successively and linearly increase or decrease from transducer to transducer, consistent with the increase or decrease in the wavelength of the chirp signals. The device may also be used in a pulse expansion mode, by inputting a broadband pulse into a selected one of the output transducers. The input transducers then produce a chirp signal having a rate corresponding the selected to output transducer.