Improving Security Screening: A Comparison of Multistatic Radar Configurations for Human Body Imaging

Active millimeter-wave radar can be used for imaging concealed objects and detecting contraband at security checkpoints. Current state-of-the-art systems are based on monostatic or quasimonostatic configurations that can misrepresent areas of the target when the specular reflection is oriented away from the incident direction. This article presents a fully multistatic millimeter-wave imaging architecture for human-body screening. Transmitters placed off the receiving aperture panel allow for maximizing the surface of the human body that can be reconstructed. A reduced number of transmitters allows for fast imaging, which minimizes the target motion effects. Multiple three-dimensional (3-D) simulation-based examples are presented to validate the proposed system.