Impact of the Number of Transmitting-Receiving Channels on the Quality of the Images Obtained by a Millimeter- Wave Freehand Imager

This contribution assesses the impact on the image quality of the number of transmitting (TX) and receiving (RX) channels of a freehand millimeter-wave imaging system. The freehand imaging system comprises a compact radar module that can be moved by hand while its position is tracked. This enables the use of synthetic aperture radar techniques to obtain high-resolution images with a compact handheld scanner. The employed radar module, capable of capturing data from 400 TX-RX channels per acquisition, was used to scan a test target and the reflectivity image of the area under scan was generated considering several TX-RX configurations. Results show that, as expected, the higher the number of considered TX-RX channels, the better the quality of the retrieved image. However, the target can be accurately reconstructed with configurations that employ a reduced number of TX-RX, reducing the computational cost of the imaging system and increasing the acquisition speed.