A Novel Near Field Image Reconstruction Method Based on Beamforming Technique for Real-Time Passive Millimeter Wave Imaging

A Ka-band 1024-channel passive millimeter wave (PMMW) imager (BHU-1024) based on synthetic aperture interferometric radiometer (SAIR) technique has been developed by Beihang University for security screening. BHU-1024 uses linear phased array to obtain resolution in the horizontal direction and uses aperture synthesis to obtain resolution in the vertical direction. This imager is designed for detecting concealed weapons on the human body and operated under the near-field condition of the antenna array. Thus, the conventional direct Fourier imaging theory, which is based on the far-field approximation, can’t be applied any longer. In this paper, a novel near-field image reconstruction method based on the beamforming technique is proposed. In this method, we derive the near-field imaging formula by beamforming theory and demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining spatial brightness temperature distribution by beam focusing. In the design of the beamformer, we further optimize the weight vector to suppress the sidelobe levels of the synthesized beam. The results of simulation and measurement demonstrate that the proposed method is an advantageous, effective imaging method for near-field passive millimeter wave imaging. At present, the proposed method has been applied to the actual passive millimeter wave imaging system BHU-1024.