An Ultra Wide Band Microwave Footwear Scanner for threat detection

The risk of attacks on travelling public has led to changes in security screening at airports. After the shoe bomber in 2001, each passenger must remove shoes, which might contain concealed threats to be x-rayed individually, which is inconvenient to passengers as well as airlines. An alternative approach is an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Microwave Footwear Scanner swept between 15 to 40 GHz, which detects threats concealed within the shoes, while they are still worn. A prototype system is tested, which demonstrates the ability to detect concealed metal and dielectric objects. Results are compared with Finite Element Modelling simulations.