A new opto-mechanical scanner for millimeter and sub-millimeter wave imaging

A. H. Lettington; N. E. Alexander; D. Dunn

doi:10.1117/12.597745

19 May 2005 A new opto-mechanical scanner for millimeter and sub-millimeter wave imaging

A. H. Lettington, N. E. Alexander, D. Dunn

Proceedings Volume 5789, Passive Millimeter-Wave Imaging Technology VIII; (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.597745
Event: Defense and Security, 2005, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

This paper describes a new opto-mechanical scanner that is able to meet the established requirements for mm-wave imaging in remote sensing and security applications. The ideal system would employ a 2-D array of electronically scanned receivers, but at present their cost is prohibitively high. Fortunately low cost, high performance, opto-mechanically scanned imagers are able to meet the current requirements. They can establish the market and pave the way for lower-cost receiver developments, necessary for electronic scanning. An opto-mechanical scanner should be able to scan a 2-D image of the scene in real-time, with a linear raster scan pattern. It should have high optical efficiency so that an imager can achieve the required thermal sensitivity with the minimum number of receivers. It should be compact to fit inside a small space envelope. The size of the imager should be dominated by the size of the collection aperture and not by any relay optics. In mm-wave imaging this size is controlled by the required spatial resolution and the space available. It is also desirable that the scanner employs the minimum number of frequency-selective optical components. This ensures that it can easily operate at any wavelength, and be active or passive. The new scanning arrangement meets these requirements and is being developed into a high performance, low-cost, compact prototype system that hopefully will meet the present and future needs for mm-wave and terahertz imaging.

Citation Download Citation

A. H. Lettington, N. E. Alexander, and D. Dunn "A new opto-mechanical scanner for millimeter and sub-millimeter wave imaging", Proc. SPIE 5789, Passive Millimeter-Wave Imaging Technology VIII, (19 May 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.597745

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