Abstract
This chapter discusses basic beamformer issues.. The beamformer forms one or more antenna beams anywhere within the array's surveillance volume. A beamformer therefore also scans the beam(s) to the required azimuth and elevation scan angles. If the radiation pattern of the antenna elements is hemispherical, the array surveillance volume is defined by the required scan angles; additionally, the beamformer adjusts the beam shape of the resulting beam(s) with the aid of the amplitude/phase weights associated with each antenna element. The beamformer of a typical passive array can be bulky and its insertion loss usually affects the overall array noise temperature. By contrast, the beamformer of an active array can be transparent to the system and volumetrically attractive. These two beamformer characteristics lend the designer several degrees of freedom, which are briefly explored in the chapter.
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