Imaging radar system having an offset receiving array for determining the angle of an object

A method for forming a radar system, the method comprising:

• utilizing a random function to determine positions of first antennas in a first row of receiver antennas, where the first row of receiver antennas has a first phase center at a first position along the first row of receiver antennas, where the first position is based upon the determined positions of the first antennas in the first row of receiver antennas;
• utilizing the random function to determine positions of second antennas in a second row of receiver antennas, where the second row of receiver antennas has a second phase center at a second position along the second row of receiver antennas, where the second position is based upon the determined positions of the second antennas in the second row of receiver antennas;
• providing a transmitter, where the transmitter includes a transmitter antenna;
• subsequent to utilizing the random function to determine the positions of the first antennas and the second antennas, providing a receiver circuit, where the receiver circuit comprises:
• the first row of receiver antennas, where the first row of receiver antennas has the first phase center at the first position along the first row of receiver antennas;
• the second row of receiver antennas, where the second row of receiver antennas has the second phase center at the second position along the second row of receiver antennas, where the first row of receiver antennas is offset from the second row of receiver antennas in a first dimension, where the first row of receiver antennas and the second row of receiver antennas extend in parallel with one another along a second dimension, and further where the first position of the first phase center is offset from the second position of the second phase center in the second dimension;
• operably coupling processing circuitry to the receiver circuitry;
• and
• programming the processing circuitry to perform acts comprising:
• obtaining a first signal from the first row of receiver antennas, where the first signal is based upon a radar signal emitted into an environment by the transmitter antenna, and further where the environment includes an object;
• obtaining a second signal from the second row of receiver antennas, where the second signal is based upon the radar signal emitted into the environment by the transmitter antenna;
• digitizing the first signal and the second signal to form first digitized data and second digitized data, respectively;
• performing digital beamforming based upon the first digitized data and the second digitized data;
• and
• computing a position of the object in the environment in both azimuth and elevation.

A method performed by a radar system to compute a position of an object in an environment, the method comprising:

• obtaining a first signal from a first row of receiver antennas of the radar system, where the first signal is based upon a radar signal emitted into an environment by a transmitter antenna of the radar system, where the environment includes an object, and further where the first row of receiver antennas has a first phase center at a first position along the first row of receiver antennas, where positions of first antennas in the first row of receiver antennas is based upon output of a random function;
• obtaining a second signal from a second row of receiver antennas of the radar system, where the second signal is based upon the radar signal emitted into the environment by the transmitter antenna, where the second row of receiver antennas has a second phase center at a second position along the second row of receiver antennas, where positions of second antennas in the second row of receiver antennas is based upon the output of the random function, where the first row of receiver antennas is offset from the second row of receiver antennas in a first dimension, where the first row of receiver antennas and the second row of receiver antennas extend in parallel with one another along a second dimension, and further where the first position of the first phase center is offset from the second position of the second phase center in the second dimension;
• digitizing the first signal and the second signal to form first digitized data and second digitized data, respectively;
• performing digital beamforming based upon the first digitized data and the second digitized data;
• and
• computing a position of the object in the environment in both azimuth and elevation.