UWB Tomographic Radar Imaging of Penetrable and Impenetrable Objects

In this paper, the capability of ultra-wide-band (UWB) sensor arrays for tomographic radar of electrically large objects is presented. The major concern when imaging is extended to real objects is to achieve a correct reconstruction of the object shape and its electric properties. A general framework based on a UWB bifocusing operator (UWB-BF) with good tomographic imaging capabilities is presented. This general approach provides a comprehensive understanding of the basic tradeoffs with regard to sensing geometry and image quality parameters. Through numerical simulations and measurements applied to canonical as well as to complex objects, basic design criteria are assessed and the potential of UWB tomographic radar imaging is presented.