Development of a high-throughput microwave imaging system for concealed weapons detection

• Published in: 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems and Technology (PAST) pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Moulder, William F., Krieger, James D., Majewski, Janusz J., Coldwell, Charles M., Nguyen, Huy T., Maurais-Galejs, Denise T., Anderson, Thomas L., Dufilie, Pierre, Herd, Jeffrey S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-10-2016
• Subjects: Antenna arrays; Apertures; Fast Fourier Transform (FFT); Hardware; Image reconstruction; Imaging; Mathematical model; Microwave imaging; multistatic radar; Topology
• DOI: 10.1109/ARRAY.2016.7832573

A video-rate microwave imaging aperture for concealed threat detection can serve as a useful tool in securing crowded, high foot traffic environments. Realization of such a system presents two major technical challenges: (1) implementation of an electrically large antenna array for capture of a moving subject, and (2) fast image reconstruction on cost-effective computing hardware. This paper presents a hardware-efficient multistatic array design to address the former challenge, and a compatible fast imaging technique to address the latter. Prototype hardware which forms a partition of an imaging aperture is discussed. Using this hardware, it is shown that the proposed array design can be used to form high-fidelity 3D images, and that the presented image reconstruction technique can form an image of a human-sized domain in ≤0.1s with low cost computing hardware.