High resolution beam former apparatus

Claim 2

Apparatus for synthetically elongating the length of an array of receiver elements to narrow the beamwidth associated with said array, comprising: a) a plurality of receiver elements arranged in an array for receiving energy reflected from a target in a target field; b) each said element being operable to provide a corresponding output signal in response to receipt of said energy; c) means for obtaining an indication of the phase angle of each said output signal; d) means for modulating all of said phase angles by a predetermined modulation factor, fm; and e) means for combining all of said signals whose phase angles have been so modified.

Claim 3

High resolution beamformer apparatus, comprising: a) a plurality of receiver elements arranged in an array for receiving energy reflected from a target in a target field; b) each said element being operable to provide a corresponding output signal in response to receipt of said energy; c) a plurality of signal processing channels each connected to receive the output signal of a respective one of said elements; d) each said signal processing channel including means for obtaining, in repetitive sampling cycles, the in phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of a respective one of said output signals; e) said signal processing channels being operable to derive, from said I and Q components, a corresponding amplitude and phase angle of the sampled signal; f) means for multiplying the derived phase angle in each said signal processing channel by a constant phase modulation factor, fm, to derive a modified phase angle; g) said signal processing channels being operable to compute modified I and Q components utilizing said modified phase angle; and h) means for combining all of said modified I and Q components of all of said signal processing channels to derive target signals.

Claim 4

High resolution beamformer apparatus, comprising: a) a plurality of receiver elements arranged in an array for receiving energy reflected from a target in a target field; b) each said element being operable to provide a corresponding output signal in response to receipt of said energy; c) a plurality of signal processing channels each connected to receive the output signal of a respective one of said elements; d) each said signal processing channel including means for obtaining, in repetitive sampling cycles, the in phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of a respective one of said output signals; e) said signal processing channels being operable to derive, from said I and Q components, a corresponding amplitude and phase angle of the sampled signal; f) means for multiplying the derived phase angle in each said signal processing channel by a constant phase modulation factor, fm, to derive a modified phase angle; g) said signal processing channels being operable to compute modified I and Q components utilizing said modified phase angle; and h) means for combining all of said modified I and Q components of all of said signal processing channels to derive target signals.

Claim 5

Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein: a) said means for obtaining said I and Q components include analog to digital converters to obtain said I and Q components in digital form.

Claim 6

Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein: a) said means for combining includes i) a first summing circuit operable to receive all of said I components of all of said signal processing channels to provide a summed I output signal, ii) a second summing circuit operable to receive all of said Q components of all of said signal processing channels to provide a summed Q output signal, iii) circuit means for squaring said summed I and Q output signals, and iv) means for combining said summed and squared I and Q output signals for display purposes.

Claim 7

Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein: a) said array of receiver elements is a straight line array.