Super-scanning phased array and its basic features

Imaging of reflecting objects by locators with a phase array, super-scanning during both the emission of probing pulses and reception of reflected signals, rejects the principal feature of traditional pulsed locating systems, which is the necessity to wait for the arrival of a reflected signal. The reception of reflected signals is possible only from certain (known beforehand) visibility layers (VLs), similar to the tomograph\´s cuts, separated by "dead" zones. When proposed in the 50s, this method was outright discarded on the assumption that energy and the information would be lost in these dead zones. In this connection, the author has carried out theoretical studies and established that, on the contrary, the new technique ensured a substantial gain in energy and information as compared to traditional radar systems. It was shown that the "super-scanning" (SS) locator could be adaptive and provide optimum distribution of energy in the surveyed space as well as super-resolution of observable objects (at distances smaller, than required by the Rayleigh criterion). An ultrasonic version of the SS locator was built, performing beam scanning in an anechoic chamber at a frequency of 115 kHz (i.e., in the range of dolphin and bat locators). The experiments totally confirmed the theoretical conclusions. A known hypothesis about the super-scanning mechanism in dolphin locators\´ is also mentioned. The obtained results are presented in this report.