Broadband Beamforming and Optimization

Abstract

Broadband beamforming techniques are of importance in several applications such as microphone arrays, sonar arrays, and radio astronomy and broadband radar. The capability to obtain a good broadband response over a wide range of frequencies is important to maintain good signal integrity and spatial selectivity. Since the beamformer needs to operate over several octaves, there are a number of important considerations in the design, such as beamformer beamwidth in the low frequency range and sensor element placement. The beamformer design can be performed directly in the wave domain. However, the more common approach is to design the beamformer in the spatially sampled domain. Another way to design the beamformer weights is according to the presented data, which gives an optimal beamformer. Other important aspects of beamforming are the capability to steer the beam towards a specific input signal and also capability to focus the beamformer in the near field.