FM-CW radar apparatus

Abstract

This FM-CW radar apparatus comprises a transmitter section, a receiver section, and a signal processing section. The transmitter section transmits a frequency-modulated continuous wave as a transmitted wave. The receiver section receives a radio wave resulting from reflection of the transmitted wave at a target, as a received wave, by a receiving antenna comprising an array of antenna elements, generates a beat signal which is a difference of the transmitted wave and the received wave in each of channels of the respective antenna elements, and converts this beat signal to a digital beat signal by A/D conversion. The signal processing section executes a digital beamforming operation with the digital beat signals and detects the target from the result of the operation. The receiver section has a switch means for selectively connecting either one of the antenna elements to a circuit for generating the beat signal, and this switch means connects only part of the antenna elements to the beat signal generating circuit in one period of the repetition periods of the frequency modulation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.