Real-time microwave imaging of unknown anomalies via scattering matrix

TL;DR

This paper develops a new real-time microwave imaging method for detecting unknown anomalies using scattering matrix data, accounting for antenna effects and transducer placement, validated with synthetic and real experiments.

Contribution

It introduces an innovative imaging function based on the scattering matrix and Born approximation, improving anomaly detection accuracy over traditional methods.

Findings

The proposed method effectively identifies small and extended anomalies.

It outperforms traditional imaging techniques in accuracy and robustness.

Experimental results confirm its applicability with synthetic and real data.

Abstract

We consider an inverse scattering problem to identify the locations or shapes of unknown anomalies from scattering parameter data collected by a small number of dipole antennas. Most of researches does not considered the influence of dipole antennas but in the experimental simulation, they are significantly affect to the identification of anomalies. Moreover, opposite to the theoretical results, it is impossible to handle scattering parameter data when the locations of the transducer and receiver are the same in real-world application. Motivated by this, we design an imaging function with and without diagonal elements of the so-called scattering matrix. This concept is based on the Born approximation and the physical interpretation of the measurement data when the locations of the transducer and receiver are the same and different. We carefully explore the mathematical structures of traditional and proposed imaging functions by finding relationships with the infinite series of Bessel functions of integer order. The explored structures reveal certain properties of imaging functions and show why the proposed method is better than the traditional approach. We present the experimental results for small and extended anomalies using synthetic and real data at several angular frequencies to demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique.