Shift register phase control system for use in producing a variable direction beam from a fixed transmitting array

Claim 1

A PHASE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR A TWO-DIMENSIONAL FIXED TRANSMITTING ARRAY COMPOSED OF A PLURALITY OF INDIVIDUAL TRANSDUCERS ARRANGED IN A FIRST NUMBER OF ROWS AND A SECOND NUMBER OF COLUMNS, SAID SYSTEM COMPRISING A CLOCK PULSE SOURCE OF GENERATING CLOCK PULSES AT A PREDETERMINED PULSE REPETITION PERIOD, MEANS SYNCHRONIZED BY SAID CLOCK PULSES FOR GENERATING A SIGNAL SQUARE WAVE HAVING A PERIOD WHICH IS A GIVEN INTEGRAL MULTIPLE OF SAID PREDETERMINED PERIOD, MEANS SYNCHRONIZED BY SAID CLOCK PULSES FOR GENERATING FIRST CONTROL PULSES AT A FIRST PRESELECTED REPETITION PERIOD, MEANS SYNCHRONIZED BY SAID CLOCK PULSS FOR GENERATING SECOND CONTROL PULSES AT A SECOND PRESELECTED REPETITION PERIOD, EACH OF SAID FIRST AND SECOND PRESELECTED REPETITION PERIOD BEING AN INTEGRAL MULTIPLE OF SAID PREDETERMINED PERIOD WHICH IS LESS THAN SAID GIVEN INTEGRAL MULTIPLE, A FIRST SHIFT REGISTER INCLUDING A NUMBER OF SUCCESSIVE STAGES THEREOF EQUAL TO ONE OF SAID FIRST AND SECOND NUMBERS, MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID SIGNAL SQUARE WAVE AS A SIGNAL INPUT TO SAID FIRST SHIFT REGISTER AND FOR APPLYING SAID FIRST CONTROL PULSES AS A SHIFT INPUT TO SAID FIRST SHIFT REGISTER, A GROUP OF SECOND