Passive millimeter wave imagers target safety and security

OCTOBER 27, 2008--Passive millimeter-wave (PMMW) imaging technology offers great potential for modern sensing, scanning, and security needs. In security screening equipment, PMMW can see through a variety of clothing and baggage materials and is effective in detecting both metallic and non-metallic threats, such as plastic and ceramic weapons. PMMW can also provide all-weather imaging capabilities for air vehicles because the problems associated with atmospheric obscurants are negated at millimeter wavelengths. At QinetiQ Ltd (Malvern, UK; www.qinetiq.com), Neil Salmon has developed a PMMW imager architecture that occupies a fraction of the volume of conventional quasi-optical imagers. His demonstration project represents a test-bed for the optimization of receivers, antennas, and their array geometries. Prototype imagers based on this architecture are likely to follow, typically with 300 receiver channels, replacing FPGAs with application-specific integrated circuits and using monolithic microwave integrated circuits in the receivers to minimize volume and power consumption. For more information, go to: http://spie.org/x27075.xml