A novel compact beamformer for a high resolution sonar

A novel technique for implementing the CZT-beamformer for high-resolution sector scanning sonar which results in a very compact hardware is presented. A Delta-modulator is used to encode the spatially sampled sensor signals from a linear array in single-bit format, thus allowing the use of shift registers in place of analog bbd´s. Another novel feature is the combination of bandpass sampling and spatial multiplexing into a single operation. The paper discusses this implementation of the CZT-beamformer, and provides simulation results and comparison with the conventional CZT-beamformer. These results demonstrate the potential of the novel technique for compact systems. A complete beamformer hardware has also been developed for a specific application.