Device for determining the direction of a plane wave

Claim 1

Device for determining the direction of propagation of a plane wave comprising: a rectilinear base, comprising P places numbered from 1 to P regularly spaced on that base, P being a prime number, N of which each comprise a detector (N ≦ P) the P - N others being without a detector; a clock sending out a sequence of pulses having a frequency of 1/τ; several channels, each corresponding to a predetermined direction, each of the channels comprising a sampling device to which are applied the signals obtained from the places P, the output of the sampling device being connected to the input of a loop, the said loop comprising an adder having two inputs, the first of whose inputs is connected to the output of the sampling device and a delay line constituted by m - 1 cells connected together in series, m being a positive whole number which is different for each channel, the input of the first cell being connected to the output of the adder and the output of the last cell being connected to the second input of the adder; binary coding means arranged between the outputs of the places and the inputs of the loops; the pulses whose frequency is 1/τ coming from the clock used for controlling the sampling devices as well as the progression of the digital signals obtained at the output of the adder of each channel along the loop thereof; and the signals depending on the comparison between the direction of the plane wave and the predetermined direction corresponding to m being obtained at the output of one of the elements of the loop of the channel m.