Patent ID: 6930631

Claim:
A sensor front end, comprising: an antenna having an antenna port and a common aperture for transmitting a sensor signal and receiving a reflected signal; a tri-mode mixer having a first input/output port coupled to the antenna input, a second input/output port, and a first input port, wherein there is a predetermined amount of signal transmitted between the first input port and the first input/output port; a continuous wave signal source coupled to the first input port of the tri-mode mixer, the continuous wave signal source providing a first signal having a first frequency, a first amplitude and a first phase, wherein a portion of the first signal is transmitted between the first input port and the first input/output port and coupled to the antenna port and is transmitted therefrom as the sensor transmit signal, and wherein the tri-mode mixer receives the reflected signal from the antenna port and mixes the received reflected signal with the first signal and provides, as an output, a baseband video signal; and a receiver coupled to the second input/output port of the tri-mode mixer such that the baseband video signal provided by the tri-mode mixer is coupled to the receiver via the second output of the transmit-receive switch, the receiver being configured and arranged to provide as an output a sensor output signal.