Wideband beam forming device; wideband beam steering device and corresponding methods

A beam steering device comprising:

• wideband transmit circuitry comprising at least two transmit antennas that transmit radiation towards a scene, wherein a frequency of the radiation changes with time in a deterministic way within a wideband frequency range,
• a receiver comprising at least one receive antenna and at least one receive element that receive radiation from said scene and that generate a receive signal from said received radiation, and
• beam steering circuitry configured to perform a beam steering to form a transmit beam from said transmitted radiation based on beam steering weights, wherein:
• for different samples or groups of subsequent samples of transmitted radiation, a sample representing said transmitted radiation at a different frequency, a frequency-dependent weight is used for the beam steering, and
• frequency-dependent weights are configured to result in a predetermined shape of said transmit beam.

A beam forming and beam steering device comprising:

• wideband transmit circuitry comprising at least two transmit antennas that transmit radiation towards a scene, wherein a frequency of the radiation changes with time in a deterministic way within a wideband frequency range,
• a receiver comprising at least two receive antennas and at least one receive element that receive radiation from said scene and that generate receive signals from said received radiation,
• beam steering circuitry configured to perform a beam steering to form a transmit beam from said transmit signals based on beam steering weights, wherein:
• for different samples or groups of subsequent samples of transmitted radiation, a sample representing said transmitted radiation at a different frequency, a frequency-dependent weight is used for the beam steering, and
• frequency-dependent weights are configured to result in a predetermined shape of said transmit beam, and
• beam forming circuitry configured to perform a beam forming to form a receive beam and obtain beam formed output signals from said receive signals based on beam forming weights, wherein:
• for different samples or groups of subsequent samples of a receive signal, a sample representing said receive signal at a different frequency, a frequency-dependent weight is used for the beam forming, and
• frequency-dependent weights are configured to result in a predetermined shape of said receive beam.

A beam forming method comprising:

• transmitting wideband radiation towards a scene, wherein a frequency of the radiation changes with time in a deterministic way within a wideband frequency range,
• receiving radiation from said scene,
• generating receive signals from said received radiation, and
• beam forming to form a receive beam and obtain beam formed output signals from said receive signals based on beam forming weights, wherein:
• for different samples or groups of subsequent samples of a receive signal, a sample representing said receive signal at a different frequency, a frequency-dependent weight is used for the beam forming, and
• frequency-dependent weights are configured to result in a predetermined shape of said receive beam.

A beam steering method comprising:

• transmitting wideband radiation towards a scene, wherein a frequency of the radiation changes with time in a deterministic way within a wideband frequency range,
• receiving radiation from said scene,
• generating a receive signal from said received radiation, and
• beam steering to form a transmit beam from said transmitted radiation based on beam steering weights, wherein:
• for different samples or groups of subsequent samples of transmitted radiation, a sample representing said transmitted radiation at a different frequency, a frequency-dependent weight is used for the beam steering, and
• frequency-dependent weights are configured to result in a predetermined shape of said transmit beam.

A beam forming and beam steering method comprising:

• transmitting wideband radiation towards a scene, wherein a frequency of the radiation changes with time in a deterministic way within a wideband frequency range,
• receiving radiation from said scene,
• generating receive signals from said received radiation,
• beam steering to form a transmit beam from said transmitted radiation based on beam steering weights, wherein:
• for different samples or groups of subsequent samples of transmitted radiation, a sample representing said transmitted radiation at a different frequency, a frequency-dependent weight is used for the beam steering, and
• frequency-dependent weights are configured to result in a predetermined shape of said transmit beam, and
• beam forming to form a receive beam and obtain beam formed output signals from said receive signals based on beam forming weights, wherein:
• for different samples or groups of subsequent samples of a receive signal, a sample representing said receive signal at a different frequency, a frequency-dependent weight is used for the beam forming, and
• frequency-dependent weights are configured to result in a predetermined shape of said receive beam.