Patent ID: 7817089

Claim:
A signal receiving system comprising: an antenna array including a plurality of uniformly spaced apart antenna units; a weight generator for generating a plurality of weights; and a beamformer for combining arrival signals outputted by said antenna units and outputting an array pattern, said beamformer including a number (T) of consecutive combining stages, a T th one of said combining stages including a converging unit, each of first to (T−1) th ones of said combining stages including a plurality of converging units, the number of said converging units in a preceding one of said combining stages of said beamformer being greater than that of a succeeding one of said combining stages of said beamformer, each of said converging units in the first one of said combining stages combining at least three of the arrival signals in accordance with corresponding ones of the weights from said weight generator so as to form an output signal, each of said converging units in each of second to (T−1) th ones of said combining stages combining output signals of at least three corresponding ones of said converging units in an immediately preceding one of said combining stages in accordance with corresponding ones of the weights from said weight generator so as to form an output signal, said converging unit of the T th one of said combining stages combining the output signals from said converging units in the (T−1) th one of said combining stages in accordance with corresponding ones of the weights from said weight generator so as to form an output signal that serves as the array pattern.