Patent ID: 7764221

Claim:
An apparatus for determination of a direction to an object (K), comprising: a control and signal-processing device; and a plurality of sensor modules, each sensor module including: a local oscillator device configured to generate a first oscillator signal, a transmit/receive device configured to transmit a respective oscillator signal and to receive signals reflected by the object, and a phase detection device including at least one mixer and a second local oscillator device configured to generate a second oscillator signal to be mixed into the first oscillator signal and into the received reflected signal by said at least one mixer, wherein the phase detection device is: coupled at one input to the oscillator device and at a second input to the transmit/receive device, configured to determine a phase difference between the first oscillator signal and the received reflected signal, and connected at one output to the control and signal-processing device; the sensor modules disposed with respect to one another at spacings in a range of half a wavelength to five times a wavelength of the oscillator signal; wherein the control and signal-processing device is configured to determine, based on the spacings and differences of the phase differences, a direction of the object with respect to the sensor modules.