General Electric Company
Modular parallel beamforming system and associated methods

Abstract:

The beamforming system includes a plurality of beamformers operatively coupled to each other. Each beamformer includes a plurality of signal generation units and a plurality of respective delaying units. Each beamformer includes a plurality of multipliers assigned to each delaying unit. Each beamformer includes a plurality of summers configured to receive a respective group of conditioned signals from a respective group of the plurality of multipliers, combine the respective group of conditioned signals and generate a respective phased array output signal. Each of the summers is configured to receive at least another input other than the respective group of conditioned signals. The plurality of beamformers are interconnected such that each of the plurality of summers within each beamformer receives, as the at least another input, a respective phased array output signal from a summer of a different one of the plurality of beamformers. As associated method is also provided.