Evaluation of Standoff Multistatic 3-D Radar Imaging at 300 GHz

In the past decades, monostatic security screening radars in the millimeter and submillimeter wave bands have progressed into feasible threat detection prototypes. Although these systems have been proven to be successful in revealing concealed weapons in static and controlled environments, future security checkpoints demand high detection probabilities even with moving subjects. In this regard, monostatic systems can only generate images from a single viewpoint, omitting the detection of person-borne threats in nonviewed areas of the body. In addition, the vanishing and glint caused by specular reflection as the person moves through the checkpoint are still unsolved problems. In this article, a proof-of-concept implementation of a multistatic architecture to bypass these issues for a 300 GHz three-dimensional imaging radar is evaluated. The approach is based on the distribution of separated transmitters to provide enough angular diversity to maintain target detection in at least one of the resulting images. Measured results from various viewpoints are presented to show the usefulness of such a configuration with imaging scenarios of common threats.