MILLIMITER-WAVE IMAGING SYSTEM, PARTICULARLY FOR CONTRABAND DETECTION

摘要

Millimeter-wave imaging elements and systems are disclosed. The system components may be used for navigation in fog or for other purposes, including a contraband detection system especially suited for detecting concealed non-magnetic and non-metallic contraband such as ceramic or plastic weapons or illegal drugs. In this embodiment of the invention, plural sources (110) of quasi-coherent millimeter wave radiation are disposed so as to uniformly illuminate a field of view. The radiation emitted by the sources may be linearly polarized in a single plane such that the polarization of the radiation with respect to the plane in which linearly polarized radiation is preferentially received by the detectors can be controlled. For detection of dielectric objects, such as ceramic weapons or narcotics, these planes of polarization should be orthogonal to one another. The detector is a staring array (36) which does not require scanning to generate an image of the entire field of view.