Patent attributes
The present invention relates to a radar apparatus that forms multiple digital beams based on reflected waves of a transmitted radio wave. A transmit signal is transmitted in a predetermined cycle from one of transmitting/receiving antennas A1 to A4 arrayed in a row. The antennas A1 to A4, each switched between transmission and reception, are arranged such that the ratio of the spacing between one pair of adjacent antennas to the spacing between the other pair of adjacent antennas is 1:2. The reflected waves are received by the respective antennas, and DBF is performed based on the resulting received signals. Eleven-channel DBF is achieved using the four antennas with a space equivalent to six antennas. By achieving multiple channels with a minimum number of antennas, the size and cost of the apparatus can be reduced while also reducing the processing time and thus enhancing the performance.