The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 06, 1981
Filed:
May. 21, 1979
Edward C Jelks, San Diego, CA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
An apparatus is provided for processing the outputs of a two dimensional nar array of spaced apart receiving elements. The receiving elements are grouped and spaced apart in rows, which may be horizontal and vertical however, the rows may be in other directions provided they lie within a plane. The apparatus includes a plurality of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, each SAW device corresponding to a respective horizontal row of receiving elements and being capable of producing a plurality of horizontal phase shift outputs which linearly correspond to the number and horizontal spacing of receiving elements in a respective horizontal row. An additional SAW device is connected to the horizonatal SAW devices for introducing a vertical phase shift factor in the horizontal outputs of each horizontal SAW device so that each SAW device is capable of producing a plurality of combined phase shift outputs, the vertical phase shift factor corresponding linearly to the spacing of the receiving elements in a vertical direction. The apparatus further includes a mixer which corresponds to each horizontal SAW device for mixing the combined phase shift outputs with the respective outputs of the receiving elements in a respective horizontal row so as to produce a plurality of mixed output signals. If desired, the mixed output signals may be summed, processed by an upper sideband filter, and then fed to a video device. With proper controls of the horizontal and vertical scans of the video device two-dimensional imaging can be accomplished for indicating the direction and amplitude distribution of a radiating source with respect to the planar array of listening elements. With the present invention the beamforming is independent of the center frequency of the receiving element array from 5 KHZ up to the millimeter frequency range.