A High-Dynamic Range Heterodyne Microwave Receiver for Modulated Scattering Measurements

This paper presents the design of a high-dynamic range heterodyne receiver specifically designed for modulated scatterer technique (MST) applications. Due to the amplitude-modulated nature of the signal, several unique receiver architectures have been reported and implemented for MST measurements, with the most widely used being the homodyne receiver. The proposed design offers a higher dynamic range compared with the homodyne receivers, particularly at high microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies. A prototype 24-GHz receiver, based on the proposed design, was built for an MST-based microwave imaging device, and its performance characteristics are presented in this paper.