RESOLUTION, COMPUTATIONAL EFFICIENCY, AND COST ANALYSIS OF BACKPROPAGATION AND HOLOGRAPHIC ALGORITHMS FOR CONCEALED OBJECT DETECTION THROUGH VARIOUS MATERIALS USING MONOSTATIC MICROWAVE IMAGING

Microwave imaging is a non-invasive and non-ionizing technique with significant applications in security screening, material characterization, and non-destructive testing.This study presents a monostatic microwave imaging system utilizing an ultrawideband (UWB) horn antenna operating between 15 GHz and 22 GHz to detect concealed metallic targets behind various materials.The experimental setup employed a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) to measure the backscattered S-parameters while an automated two-dimensional (2-D) scanner systematically moved the antenna across a 50 cm 50 cm aperture with a 1 cm step size.Different concealment materials, including dry cloth, wet cloth, wood, granite, and tiles of varying thicknesses, were introduced to evaluate their effects on target visibility and image quality.Two image