Patent ID: 7664196

Claim:
A system having a plurality of elements each one of the elements being coupled to a corresponding one of a plurality of oscillator sections, each one of the oscillator sections being connected to a common port, each one of the oscillator sections comprising: (A) an oscillator, comprising: a phase detector; a low pass filter coupled to an output of the phase detector; a voltage controlled oscillator fed by the low pass filter; a variable time delay circuit fed by a portion of an output of the voltage controlled oscillator; and wherein the phase detector is fed by the variable time delay circuit and a reference signal; and (B) a mixer section coupled to the voltage controlled oscillator, the one of the elements in such one of the oscillator sections and the common port and (C) wherein the plurality of oscillator sections produce, in response to a time delay provided by the time delay circuit of each one of the oscillator sections, a relative frequency shift between the plurality of antenna elements, such relative frequency shift being related to a selectable time delay provided by the variable time delay at each one of the elements.