A summary of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's 675 GHz imaging radar is presented, with an emphasis on several key design aspects that enable fast, reliable through-clothes imaging of person-borne concealed objects. Using the frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar technique with a nearly 30 GHz bandwidth, sub-centimeter range resolution is achieved. To optimize the radar's range resolution, a reliable software calibration procedure compensates for signal distortion from radar waveform nonlinearities. Low-noise, high dynamic range detection comes from the radar's heterodyne RF architecture, low-noise chirp source, and high-performance 675 GHz transceiver. The radar's optical design permits low-distortion fast beam scanning for single-pixel imaging, and a real-time radar image frame rate of 1 Hz is now possible. Still faster speeds are on the horizon as multi-beam THz transceivers are developed.

THz Imaging Radar for Standoff Personnel Screening

Basic principles of heterodyne techniques are introduced and the various components of a heterodyne system are summarized. Special applications in ECE, interferometry and reflectometry are discussed after introducing the diagnostic principles. Realized systems as described in the literature are briefly outlined. Ordering principles are radiometer types in the case of ECE, mixing scheme and generation and stabilization of local oscillator and intermediate frequency signals in the case of interferometry and reflectometry. Special techniques and their impact on the performance of the diagnostic instruments are discussed.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0741-3335/39/11/001/pdf

Heterodyne methods in millimetre wave plasma diagnostics with applications to ECE, interferometry and reflectometry

This paper is about microwave reflectometry -- a radar technique for plasma density measurements using the reflection of electromagnetic waves by a plasma cutoff. Both the theoretical foundations of reflectometry and its practical application to the study of magnetically confined plasmas are reviewed in this paper. In particular, the role of short-scale density fluctuations is discussed at length, both as a unique diagnostic tool for turbulence studies in thermonuclear plasmas and for the deleterious effects that fluctuations may have on the measurement of the average plasma density with microwave reflectometry.

/pdf/microwave-reflectometry-for-magnetically-confined-plasmas-4kp48hncd7.pdf

Microwave reflectometry for magnetically confined plasmas

Particle and energy transport in tokamaks and other toroidal confinement devices is dominated by turbulence generated by flows and gradients. In order to understand and control of this transport, diagnostic instrumentation was developed to study the structure and magnitude of microturbulent processes and to identify the origins of plasma loss. This review will cover the primary instruments that have been developed to measure fluctuating quantities associated with transport: density, δn, temperature, δT, potential, δφ, and magnetic field, δB, and their correlations. The methods discussed are Langmuir probes, heavy ion beam probes, collective and phase scintillation scattering, beam emission and ordinary spectroscopy, reflectometry and enhanced scattering, electron cyclotron emission, and several magnetic methods. The emphasis here will be on techniques applicable to microturbulence whose scale length is greater than the ion cyclotron radius and much less than the minor radius. Limitations and strengths of each method will be described and compared. Techniques will be discussed for estimating fluctuation intensities and wave number spectra or, equivalently, multipoint correlations in radial, poloidal, and toroidal directions. Large scale or magnetohydrodynamic-like plasma oscillations are typically studied with tomographic techniques or external probes and are reviewed elsewhere.

Diagnostic instrumentation for microturbulence in tokamaks

Microwave-based diagnostics have found broad application in magnetic fusion plasma diagnostics and are expected to be widely employed in future burning plasma experiments (BPXs). Most of these tech...

Chapter 3: Microwave Diagnostics

Superheterodyne stimulus‐response measurements can be made with high dynamic range, but are often sensitive to oscillator frequency drift and noise. The usual techniques for reducing this sensitivity often become impractical at millimeter‐wave frequencies and above. This paper describes a feedforward tracking technique and its application to single frequency millimeter‐wave interferometry and Doppler‐shift scattering measurements on tokamak plasmas. Swept frequency transmission measurements can also be made with high dynamic range using this technique.

J.L. Doane

Papers

Broadband superheterodyne tracking circuits for millimeter‐wave measurements