Close range millimetre wave imaging

The design and testing of a close range Passive Millimetre Wave (PMMW) scanning thermal imager is described. Whilst close range PMMW imaging has previously been applied to concealed weapon detection at ranges of a few metres, the imager under development here is designed to focus on targets at a range of a few tens of centimetres. In particular, the main design aim is to produce high resolution thermal maps suitable for medical imaging applications. Imaging at MMW frequencies offers greater penetration depths in lossy dielectric media than conventional infrared (IR) imagers, although there is an obvious trade-off in spatial resolution.