Beamformer for multi-beam receive antenna

A multi-beam phased array antenna system comprising:

• a plurality of antenna elements;
• one or more phase and gain control devices associated with each antenna element;
• a beam forming combiner creating a combined signal from signals received from the antenna elements;
• a beam forming computer configured to generate control signals to drive the phase and gain control devices to create multiple beams, in which each beam is identified by a coding parameter embedded in the control signals;
• and
• a filter configured to receive the combined signal, detect the coding parameters, and separate the beams using the coding parameters.

A multi-beam phased array antenna system comprising:

• a plurality of antenna elements;
• a phase and gain control device for each antenna element;
• a beam forming combiner creating a combined signal from the signals received from the antenna elements;
• a code selector configured to identify desired coding parameter sets,
• a beam selector configured to identify desired beam sets;
• a beam forming computer configured to generate control signals to drive the phase and gain control devices to create the multiple beams for a desired beam set, in which each beam is identified by a coding parameter embedded into the control signal using a desired code set;
• and
• a filter configured to receive the combined signal, detect the coding parameters, and separate the beams using the coding parameters.

An antenna system comprising:

• a plurality of antenna elements;
• a beam former operative for setting control signals for forming the received energy into multiple separate beams, embedding coding parameters into the control signals, and applying the encoded control signals to at least one phase and gain control device associated with each antenna element to form multiple encoded beams;
• a combiner for combining the multiple encoded beams into a combined signal;
• and
• a decoder for recovering the separate beams from the combined signal.