Low-cost planar microwave imaging system. Issue 4 (1st October 2016) - Asefi, Mohammad
Abstract : In this paper, the design, construction and measurements of a low-cost novel microwave imaging system, a microwave camera, is presented. The design is based on a 10 GHz transmitter using a horn antenna, an array of microstrip receive antennas and a switching network. The received data is followed by a fast down converter to baseband and a custom-designed data acquisition system and graphical interface. The system offers novelty in terms of distinguishing materials of different dielectric constants, the operating frequency band and receiver antenna design (retina). The scanning and switching stages presented in this work are also new. A prototype of the proposed system was built and used to image objects of different materials and dielectric characteristics. Using the obtained results, the performance of the system was then analysed with very encouraging results.