On the use of passive reflecting surfaces and compressive sensing techniques for detecting security threats at standoff distances

Abstract

This work presents a new radar system concept, capable of detecting explosive related threats at standoff distances. The system consists of a two-dimensional aperture of randomly distributed transmitting/receiving antenna elements and a set of passive reflecting surfaces (PRS) positioned in the vicinity of the target. The PRS act as a mirror that enhances the field of view of the radar system, thus increasing its resolution. A 3D imaging algorithm, based on novel compressive sensing techniques, is used in this work.This system configuration provides a resolution of 7.1mm in cross-range and 25mm in range, when the target is at 10m range, and the radar works at 60GHz center frequency and has 6GHz bandwidth. Copyright © 2014 Authors.