Paper
21 February 2011 Progress in millimeter-wave imaging
Author Affiliations +
Proceedings Volume 7936, RF and Millimeter-Wave Photonics; 79360D (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.880188
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2011, San Francisco, California, United States
Abstract
The field of millimeter-wave (MMW) imaging has progressed significantly over the last two decades. The most obvious evidence of this is the widespread use of MMW full-body scanners, now commonly found in airports. The path to this point has been the result of the work of a wide range of experts from many scientific and engineering disciplines. This article represents one perspective of this progress. The development of MMW imagers, and all their associated component technologies, image processing techniques, clever engineering, etc. has been driven by a relatively small number of interesting applications. It has been known for about 70 years that RF energy can be used to "see" through things like clouds and detect, for example, hostile aircraft. As the RF frequency goes up to 35, 100, or 340 GHz, it becomes possible to image through obscurants with much improved resolution. However, as frequency increases, attenuation increases as well, so selecting the right frequency for the application is an important point. The challenge of seeing through obscurants such as fog, smoke and dust drives one towards a MMW imaging solution. Typical applications include guiding aircraft through low visibility conditions, detecting nearby watercraft in the fog, and searching for concealed weapons. So, while these capabilities have been demonstrated numerous times over the years, the practical and affordable implementation of the systems to accomplish these goals is where the real story lies.
© (2011) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
David A. Wikner "Progress in millimeter-wave imaging", Proc. SPIE 7936, RF and Millimeter-Wave Photonics, 79360D (21 February 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.880188
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CITATIONS
Cited by 7 scholarly publications and 1 patent.
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KEYWORDS
Extremely high frequency

Imaging systems

Antennas

Millimeter wave imaging

Phased array optics

Receivers

Cameras

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