Patent ID: 7372396

Claim:
A transmit-receive FM-CW radar apparatus which switches between transmission and reception by time division control, comprising: a plurality of switches configured to turn on and off a local signal to be supplied to a plurality of mixers; each of said plurality of mixers is associated with a unique one of said switches, each mixer configured to downconvert an IF signal which is input to said mixers; a plurality of switch controllers, each of which is associated with a unique one of said switches, the switch controllers configured to control said switches on and off in a plurality of modes in which the timings of said on and off of said switches are different depending on a distance from a target, and configured to select said local signal in said plurality of modes for being supplied to said mixers; wherein said mixers mix said selected local signal and said IF signal to downconvert said IF signal and output the same, and wherein said plurality of modes consist of a mode for downconverting an IF signal corresponding to a portion occupying up to approximately ⅓ from a leading edge of a receive timing interval, a mode for downconverting an IF signal corresponding to a portion occupying up to approximately ⅔ from the leading edge of the receive timing interval, and a mode for downconverting an IF signal corresponding to an entire portion of said receive timing interval.