Patent ID: 7486223

Claim:
A radar apparatus comprising: a plurality of antennas having identical antenna characteristics, being arranged at unequally spaced intervals in a single row, the plurality of antennas configured to transmit a radio wave as transmitting antennas during continued multiple periods, and receive a reflected radio wave as receiving antennas during the continued multiple periods, said receiving antennas being assigned to receiving signal channels, said receiving signal channels being numbered from 1 to N, said N being larger than the number of antennas; a plurality of transceivers for transmitting a radio wave from the transmitting antennas and receiving received signals from the receiving antennas, said received signals representing the reflected wave received at the receiving antennas; and a signal processing unit for selecting a transmitting transceiver which transmits a radio wave during each of the continued multiple periods, selecting receiving transceivers which receive the received signals from the receiving antennas assigned to the receiving signal channels during each of the continued multiple periods, and performing digital beam forming with a first receiving signal channel group and a second receiving signal channel group respectively.