Abstract
Millimeter-wave (MMW) imaging is of interest as it has played an essential role in personal surveillance. The existing MMW short-range imaging mechanisms in personal surveillance can be mainly divided into SISO and MIMO. The SISO mechanism can achieve fast and accurate imaging. However, as the operating frequency increases, the number of antennas required increases rapidly, and the antenna spacing decreases, which not only causes an increase in system cost, but also makes it difficult to suppress antenna coupling. Although the MIMO mechanism reduces the number of antennas required for imaging and increases the antenna spacing, it is currently unable to achieve rapid and accurate reconstruction comparable to the SISO mechanism. In this paper, a MIMO short-range imaging mechanism has been proposed, which is well-suitable for fast and accurate reconstruction, and the applicable conditions of the mechanism were given quantitatively. Unlike the traditional MIMO short-range imaging mechanism, the proposed MIMO imaging mechanism satisfies the principle of equivalent phase center (EPC) in short-range imaging by ingeniously designing MIMO sub-arrays. Therefore, it can directly use various accurate and fast imaging algorithms developed for SISO mechanism to reconstruct images, such as range migration algorithm (RMA). It means that the algorithm has the advantages of both SISO mechanism and MIMO mechanism. The demonstrations in E-band show that the proposed MIMO mechanism exhibits the same level of imaging quality and reconstruction speed as SISO mechanism in short-range imaging, but the antenna utilization rate and the antenna spacing can be increased by more than 4 times. When compared with the traditional MIMO imaging mechanism, the proposed MIMO mechanism not only has better imaging quality but also greatly improves the reconstruction speed, which is nearly 200,000 times faster than the traditional MIMO mechanism in a typical imaging scene of 1m×1m×0.2m volume with a voxel size of 1.85 mm³ . Both simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed MIMO mechanism.
Due to the characteristics of nonionizing radiation, high resolution and good penetrability, active MMW imaging applied to personnel surveillance has been extensively studied over the past decades
Therefore, some researchers have set their sights on the mechanism of MIMO in which transmitting and receiving antennas are not co-located. MIMO antenna array operates sequentially or simultaneously, when one transmitting antenna emits signal, multiple receiving antennas receive the echo signal. Compared with the SISO imaging system, the MIMO imaging system requires fewer antennas, has faster scanning speed, and the antennas can be sparsely arranged. We noticed that there are some research focusing on MIMO array topology design
In this study, a MIMO short-range imaging mechanism of MMW for fast and accurate reconstruction is presented. The proposed MIMO imaging mechanism adopts a mechanical scanning MIMO linear array in order to balance the system cost and scanning speed. Through the sparse design of antenna array and control technology, the data acquisition speed and the utilization rate of antenna can be greatly improved. Meanwhile, the antennas in the MIMO array are arranged sparsely, which helps to couple suppression and hardware complexity reduction. More importantly, the MIMO mechanism could use accurate and fast imaging algorithms developed for SISO mechanism, such as RMA, to reconstruct images, which significantly improves the speed of reconstruction. It must be noted that RMA is just one type of fast imaging algorithms, and we choose it to verify the effectiveness of our mechanism for its generality. In essence, the proposed MIMO mechanism is suitable for a variety of fast imaging algorithms developed based on SISO mechanism, such as phase shift migration algorithm (PSMA)
Before discussing the MIMO mechanism, we first review the SISO imaging mechanism and its image reconstruction algorithms. As shown in
, | (1) |

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of SISO imaging mechanism
图 1 SISO成像体制原理示意图
where represents the distance between the antenna at with the target at . represents the wavenumber, and is the reflectivity distribution of the target.
Typically, the antennas are evenly distributed in 2D aperture. According to the sampling requirement, the interval between antennas should satisfy the Nyquist criterion
, |
, | (2) |
where and are the sampling step in the cross-range plane, represents the shortest wavelength within frequency band. and are the width and height of antenna array. and are the width and height of imaging domain. represents the front surface of the target on the Z-axis. However, due to the beam-width of antenna is limited, usually setting the internal as is sufficient. Because the sampling of antenna is uniform, so RMA can be used. The imaging process can be described as Ref. [
, | (3) |
and represent the 3D Fourier inverse converter and 2D Fourier transform operator, respectively. and stand for the spatial wavenumbers in x- and y- directions, respectively.
For MIMO imaging mechanism, transmitting and receiving antennas are not co-located. The process of scattering data acquirement can be written as:
, | (4) |
where stands for the distance between the transmitter at and the target at . the represents the distance between receiver at and target at .
Obviously, the scattering data set is a 5-D matrix in MIMO imaging system. To reconstruct a 3-D image by RMA, the operation of dimension reduction must be done. Equivalent phase center (EPC) principle is a simple and effective method for spatial dimension reductio
, , | (5) |
Then, the 5D data is rewritten as a 3-D data . Hence, RMA can be used, a 3-D image can be formed with the following expression:
, | (6) |
Nevertheless, the EPC principle is valid only under the far-field condition, i.e., the imaging distance is much larger than the size of MIMO array, which can be expressed as Rayleigh’s far-field criterion
, | (7) |
where is the distance between target with MIMO array, represents the length of MIMO array. However, the condition fails to be met in traditional MIMO shot-range imaging mechanism. For example,the imaging area of MMW human security inspection system is about 1 m×2 m and the operating wavelength usually less than 0.01m. However, the maximum detection distance of the system is usually under 1 meter because of the low power of sources. In this paper, a MIMO mechanism that uses several sub-arrays is proposed, which can use various accurate and fast imaging algorithms developed for SISO mechanism to reconstruct images without obvious image degradation.
The MIMO linear array adopted by the presented MIMO mechanism is depicted as
, | (8) |
As shown in the

Fig. 2 Diagram of MIMO linear array configuration adopted by the proposed new MIMO mechanism
图 2 新型MIMO体制线性天线阵列配置示意图
We define the number of cells as , then the number of elements in array 1 and array 2 can be written as ,.The interval of EPC is and length of EPC array can be expressed as:
. | (9) |
Hence, compared with SISO array, the antenna utilization rate in this MIMO array can be expressed as:
. | (10) |
Since the interval of EPC usually was set as , then
. | (11) |
In addition, the traditional MIMO imaging mechanism in Ref.[

Fig. 3 Diagram of MIMO linear array configuration adopted by the traditional MIMO mechanism
图 3 传统MIMO体制线性天线阵列配置示意图
In this section, we did both simulations and experiments to verify the MIMO imaging mechanism. As shown in

Fig. 4 Drawing of resolution chart
图 4 分辨率测试板示意图
The adopted MMW source is 70~82 GHz with a sampling interval of 0.25 GHz. The imaging range is 0.3 meter and the holographic data are obtained by(4). Based on the design method in section II, we design a set of MIMO linear arrays with different but nearly identical EPC array in order to testify the effectiveness of the proposed MIMO imaging mechanism. From

Fig. 5 Illustration of mannequin
图 5 人体模特示意图

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Fig. 6 Reconstructed images (maximum projection) of resolution chart via numerical simulattons (a) SISO array with RMA (b) traditional MIMO array with RMA (c) traditional MIMO array with BPA (d) 1:4:69 MIMO array with RMA (e) 2:3:47 MIMO array with RMA (f) 1:8:35 MIMO array with RMA (g) 1:10:28 MIMO array with RMA
图 6 分辨率测试板数值仿真成像结果 (a) 采用RMA的SISO阵列 (b) 采用RMA的传统MIMO阵列 (c) 采用BPA的传统MIMO阵列 (d)采用RMA的1:4:69 MIMO阵列 (e) 采用RMA的2:3:47 MIMO阵列 (f) 采用RMA的1:8:35 MIMO阵列 (g) 采用RMA的1:10:28 MIMO阵列
To quantitatively compare the imaging quality of different imaging mechanism, we adopt the index of peak side-lobe ratio (PSLR). An ideal scattering point that is located at (0,0,0.3) serves as the imaging target. After imaging, 3D imaging result is projected in x-y plane, then the PSFs in the array direction are plotted in

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Fig. 7 PSFs of different arrays or different mechanisms for numerical simulations. (a) different arrays. (b) different mechanisms
图 7 不同成像体制或不同阵列的点扩散函数数值仿真结果 (a) 不同阵列 (b)不同成像体制Besides, by imaging with RMA, the computational time of proposed MIMO mechanism is approximately same with that of SISO mechanism. Compared with the traditional MIMO mechanism, the proposed MIMO mechanism not only gets better imaging performance but also faster reconstruction speed. The computational time of proposed MIMO mechanism is just about 0.00052% that of the traditional MIMO mechanism. It verifies the superiority of the proposed MIMO mechanism.
From
We used the electromagnetic simulation software FEKO with the Physical-Optics (PO) method to obtain the results of electromagnetic simulations. The mannequin is placed between Z=0.15 m and Z=0.35 m. We use MMW between 70-82 GHz with an interval of 0.25 GHz to illuminate the target. One electric dipole is used as an antenna. Similarly, a 1-meter-long MIMO array and the SISO array whose elements located at the equivalent phase center are chosen for comparation. Based on

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Fig. 8 Reconstructed images (maximum projection) of mannequin via electromagnetic simulations. (a) SISO array with RMA. (b)1:4:69 MIMO array with RMA
图 8 人体模特电磁仿真成像结果 (a) 采用RMA的SISO阵列 (b)采用RMA的1:4:69 MIMO阵列

Fig. 9 PSFs of different mechanisms for electromagnetic simulation
图 9 不同成像体制的点扩散函数电磁仿真结果
The computational time of the two mechanisms for imaging a 1m×1m×0.2 m volume with an interval of 1.85 mm and the PSLR corresponding
In this section, the experiments are designed to cross-validate with the simulations. As shown in

Fig. 10 Photograph of vertical scanner
图 10 垂直扫描仪光学图像

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Fig. 11 Schematic diagram and photograph of SISO imaging system (a) Schematic diagram (b) Photograph.
图 11 SISO成像系统原理示意图及光学图像 (a) 原理示意图 (b)光学图像
A metal resolution test chart, which is very similar to that in numerical simulations, is used to test the performance of the MIMO imaging system and the SISO imaging system. The resolution test chart is placed 0.4 m in front of the scanning aperture and the scanning aperture is set as 1m×1m with a 1.85 mm interval in both the MIMO imaging system and the SISO imaging system.

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Fig. 12 Measurement of the resolution test chart (a) Photograph (b) Reconstructed image of 1:4:69 MIMO array with RMA (c) Reconstructed image of SISO array with RMA
图 12 分辨率测试板测量结果 (a) 光学图片 (b)采用RMA的1:4:69 MIMO阵列重建结果 (c) 采用RMA的SISO阵列重建结果
Since the parameter configurations are the same with electromagnetic simulations, and the size of data and the number of antennas are the same. Hence, the computational time and antenna utilization rate of the proposed MIMO imaging mechanism and the SISO imaging mechanism are also the same with the results in
In order to further test the performance of the proposed MIMO imaging mechanism in practical application, we choose a child mannequin as a 3D target to represent the subjects most at risk. Moreover, detection of a child is harder than an adult for its smaller size. The child mannequin is located in 0.2~0.4 m in front of scanning aperture and the scan length along vertical direction is set to 1m and the interval is 1.85 mm. The photograph and reconstructed image of the child mannequin are shown in

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Fig. 13 Measurement of the child mannequin (a) Photograph (b) Reconstructed image of 1:4:69 MIMO array with RMA
图 13 儿童人体模特测量结果 (a) 光学图片 (b)采用RMA的1:4:69 MIMO阵列重建结果
From the above imaging results, we see that the experimental results are highly consistent with the simulation results. For the proposed MIMO imaging mechanism, both 2D and 3D targets can be completely focused and accurately imaged by using RMA, which means the proposed MIMO mechanism is suitable for fast imaging algorithms developed for SISO mechanism. In addition, compared with the SISO imaging mechanism, the proposed MIMO imaging mechanism has a comparable imaging resolution, but higher antenna utilization and lower speckles noise due to the advantages of MIMO mechanism. In other words, the proposed MIMO imaging mechanism has the advantages of both SISO mechanism and MIMO mechanism.
A MIMO short-range imaging mechanism of MMW that can achieve fast and accurate reconstruction is presented. The applicable conditions of the mechanism are given quantitatively. The feasibility of the method is verified by simulations and experiments. The results demonstrate that the MIMO imaging mechanism presented in the paper is suitable for RMA and the applicable conditions of the mechanism are effective. When imaging with RMA, the quality and the computational time of reconstructed images formed by our MIMO mechanism are similar to those formed by the SISO mechanism but the antenna utilization rate and antenna spacing are much better than traditional MIMO mechanism. Compared with the traditional MIMO imaging mechanism, although the proposed MIMO mechanism requires more antennas, it can achieve higher imaging quality and its applicability to various fast imaging algorithms greatly improves the imaging speed of the MIMO system.
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