A Fast Scanning W-Band System for Advanced Millimetre-Wave Short Range Imaging Applications

The paper presents the development of a fast scanning W-Band (75-100 GHz) system and a suitable antenna concept for advanced imaging applications. The goal is to obtain a broadband frequency response from a large target area within a short time period. Two typical approaches for the design of a free space millimetre-wave imaging setup will be discussed. The first approach consists of a focused bistatic measurement setup that includes a combination of a conical horn and a dielectric lens in order to focus the beam. The basic idea of the second approach is to use an unfocused measurement setup employing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) algorithms in order to focus the image numerically. Both measurement setups will be discussed with respect to the capability for fast scanning mm-wave imaging systems. Experimental results on planar test objects demonstrate the performance of the developed W-Band system compared to a commercial vector network analyzer (VNA)