Patent ID: 8743914

Claim:
An analog beamforming receiver for forming multiple simultaneous independent beams, comprising: a first receive element for receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal, the first receive element coupled with circuitry for sequentially adjusting at least one of a phase or a gain of the RF signal received by the first receive element, the first receive element further coupled with an analog filter for filtering the RF signal received by the first receive element before phase or gain adjustment of the RF signal received by the first receive element; a second receive element for receiving the RF signal, the second receive element coupled with circuitry for sequentially adjusting at least one of a phase or a gain of the RF signal received by the second receive element, the second receive element further coupled with an analog filter for filtering the RF signal received by the second receive element before phase or gain adjustment of the RF signal received by the second receive element; a combiner coupled with the first receive element and the second receive element for combining the phase or gain adjusted RF signals from the first receive element and the second receive element to form a combined analog signal; at least a first analog to digital converter and a second analog to digital converter coupled with the combiner for converting the combined analog signal from the combiner into a first plurality of digital samples and a second plurality of digital samples, respectively, wherein the first analog to digital converter and the second analog to digital converter are alternately switched with respect to one another based upon a switching rate of the combiner to sample alternating dwells of the combined analog signal; a demultiplexer coupled with the first analog to digital converter and the second analog to digital converter for demultiplexing the first plurality of digital samples from the first analog to digital converter and the second plurality of digital samples from the second analog to digital converter into a plurality of demultiplexed signals forming a plurality of multiple simultaneous independent beams; and one or more digital filters coupled with the demultiplexer for filtering each of the plurality of demultiplexed signals forming a respective one of the plurality of multiple simultaneous independent beams.