US 12,481,023 B2
Antenna for a radar apparatus
Reino Keränen, Espoo (FI); Markus Berg, Kiiminki (FI); and Tommi Tuovinen, Tyrnävä (FI)
Assigned to Vaisala Oyj, Helsinki (FI)
Filed by Vaisala Oyj, Helsinki (FI)
Filed on Mar. 7, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/179,991.
Claims priority of application No. 22161061 (EP), filed on Mar. 9, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0288535 A1, Sep. 14, 2023
Int. Cl. G01S 7/41 (2006.01); G01S 7/35 (2006.01); G01S 13/42 (2006.01); G01S 13/58 (2006.01); G01S 13/95 (2006.01); H01Q 19/06 (2006.01); H01Q 19/10 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 7/41 (2013.01) [G01S 7/352 (2013.01); G01S 13/42 (2013.01); G01S 13/583 (2013.01); G01S 13/95 (2013.01); H01Q 19/06 (2013.01); H01Q 19/10 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A radar apparatus arranged for operation in meteorological and/or atmospheric studies to simultaneously detect and distinguish a plurality of targets at different distances from the radar apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
an antenna assembly comprising:
a feed antenna arranged to radiate outbound radio waves that represent a transmitted RF signal supplied thereto and capture a received RF signal that represents inbound radio waves received thereat; and
a single focusing element positioned with respect to the feed antenna such that the feed antenna is disposed further away from an antenna aperture of the antenna assembly than a phase center of the focusing element and such that the feed antenna is positioned on a plane that is offset from the phase center by a predefined distance along a center axis of the focusing element, thereby arranged to collimate the outbound radio waves originating from the feed antenna into respective concave radio waves of a transmitter beam for transmission towards a monitoring direction and focus convex inbound radio waves of a receiver beam received at the focusing element from the monitoring direction for reception at the feed antenna;
a transmitter arranged to supply the transmitted RF signal to the feed antenna and a receiver arranged to receive the received RF signal captured at the feed antenna; and
a processing unit arranged to determine, based on the received RF signal in consideration of the transmitted RF signal, respective characteristics of the plurality of targets at different distances from the antenna assembly in the monitoring direction, wherein said characteristics include at least one of the following:
respective locations of the plurality of targets,
respective velocities of the plurality of targets,
respective sizes of the plurality of targets,
respective shapes of the plurality of targets.