A high frame rate, 340 GHz 3D imaging radar for security

Abstract

The need for improved security at airports with high detection performance, high throughput rates and an improved passenger experience is motivating research into new sensing technologies. The European Union funded CONSORTIS project is addressing these aims by demonstrating a system which combines a submillimeter wave radar, a dual-band passive submillimeter wave camera and automatic anomaly detection software for reliable detection while ensuring passenger privacy. In this paper we describe the 340 GHz 16-channel FMCW radar which produces 3D maps of the subject with ~1 cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> voxel resolution over a 1 m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> sense volume at multi-hertz frame rates. The radar combines advanced transceiver electronics with high speed mechanical beam steering and parallelized processing to achieve this level of performance.