Experimental Results of a 3-D Millimeter-Wave Compressive Reflector Antenna Imaging System

• Published in: IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 24 - 28
• Main Authors: Zhang, Weite, Molaei, Ali, Heredia-Juesas, Juan, Tirado, Luis, Graham, Katherine, Bisulco, Anthony, Gomez-Sousa, Hipolito, Martinez-Lorenzo, Jose Angel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.01.2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 3-D imaging; Apertures; Compressive reflector antenna (CRA); compressive sensing (CS); Imaging; Imaging techniques; Millimeter waves; millimeter-wave (mm-wave); MIMO communication; Phase shifters; Pseudorandom; Radar imaging; Reflector antennas; Sensors; spatial diversity; T shape; Three dimensional printing; Three-dimensional displays; Two dimensional displays
• ISSN: 1536-1225; 1548-5757
• DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2018.2875628

This letter presents the first experimental results of our three-dimensional (3-D) millimeter-wave compressive reflector antenna (CRA) imaging system. In this prototype, the CRA is 3-D printed and coated with a metallic spray to easily introduce pseudorandom scatterers on the surface of a traditional reflector antenna. The CRA performs a pseudorandom coding of the incident wavefront, thus adding spatial diversity in the imaging region and enabling the effective use of compressive sensing and imaging techniques. The CRA is fed with a multiple-input multiple-output radar, which consists of four transmitting and four receiving ports. Consequently, the mechanical scanning parts and phase shifters, which are necessary in conventional physical or synthetic aperture arrays, are not needed in this system. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the prototype to perform a successful 3-D detection of a T-shaped metallic target.