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When combining waves of the same frequency, they can be manipulated in a way that they either combine constructively or destructively. Beamforming makes use of this principle in the spatial and temporal domains. On the receiver side by having multiple spatial samples of waves, a beamformer can enhance or cancel a wave coming from a certain direction. Similar on the transmitter side, multiple spatial transmitters can transmit waves so that the radiation pattern is coherent or destructive in desired direction.
Beamforming is a ubiquitous technology when it comes to wave propagation. It does not matter if the wave is light, acoustic, seismic, or ultrasonic, etc., beamforming can be applied. Because of the wide range of applications of beamforming, there exist multiple design criteria for beampatterns. They include creating a beampattern that matches a desired beampattern, having a minimum beamwidth for a certain sidelobe level or null steering.
The solution to these different beampattern designs is almost as numerous as the number of applications of beamforming. Some examples are:
To choose an appropriate beamforming solution, one must first asked several questions:
The answers to these questions will provide knowledge to what type of beamforming your application requires.
To learn more about various applications of beamforming, check out the following links: