SBIR Phase I: Terahertz Imaging Radar for Law Enforcement

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将通过进一步发展用于隐藏威胁检测的太赫兹雷达成像技术来改善公共安全。随着武器暴力和大规模伤亡事件在全国范围内的增加，以及3d打印枪支和陶瓷刀等非金属武器的检测难度增加，威胁检测技术存在明显差距。该解决方案满足了约20亿美元市场的公认需求，其中包括执法和活动场地安全。现有的方法（如机场扫描仪和金属探测仪）价格昂贵、干扰性强、不方便，或者在检测能力方面存在很大差距。太赫兹雷达成像保证了黄金标准机场扫描仪在消费级、便携式和谨慎设备中的性能。通过演示太赫兹雷达收发器，第一阶段的工作将降低该技术的关键技术元素的风险，这对安全应用和其他领域至关重要。如果成功，该项目代表着解决社会隐藏威胁检测问题的重要一步。这个项目的智力价值围绕着太赫兹雷达收发器的设计、实现、制造和测试，太赫兹雷达收发器是人员筛选设备中使用的关键组件。目前在公开市场上没有这种收发器可以购买，更不用说拟议的商业应用所需的成本和数量了。当与成像系统的其他元件配对时，结果将是一个三维雷达成像仪，能够“看穿”介电材料，如织物，探测隐藏的武器和违禁品，包括金属和非金属。收发器设计工作将重点开发诸如倍频器、放大器和混频器等组件，并将其电气、机械和热集成到更大的成像系统中。该设计阶段将优先考虑实现与大规模生产和广泛部署兼容的成本、产量和可扩展性指标。这项工作涉及的关键考虑因素是系统的信噪比（SNR）和动态范围（DR），这两者都是成像性能和武器探测能力的重要指标。该项目利用了太赫兹集成电路技术的最新进展。预期的结果是这种组件集成到全功能成像系统的实验演示。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will improve public safety by furthering terahertz radar imaging technology for concealed threat detection. With increasing cases of weapons violence and mass casualty events across the nation, and an increase in the difficulty of detecting non-metallic weapons such as 3D-printed firearms and ceramic knives, a significant gap exists in threat detection technologies. This solution addresses a recognized need in an approximately $2 billion market which includes law enforcement and event venue security. Existing approaches (such as airport scanners and walkthrough metal detectors) are expensive, intrusive, and inconvenient or leave large gaps in detection capability. Terahertz radar imaging promises the performance of gold-standard airport scanners in a consumer grade, portable, and discreet device. By demonstrating a terahertz radar transceiver, this Phase I effort will de-risk a key technical element of this technology, which is critical for security applications and beyond. If successful, this project represents a significant step forward in addressing society’s concealed threat detection issues.The intellectual merit of this project revolves around the design, implementation, fabrication and testing of a terahertz radar transceiver, a key component in the approach used in a personnel screening device. No such transceiver is currently available to purchase on the open market, let alone at the costs and volumes required for the proposed commercial applications. When paired with other elements of the imaging system, the result will be a three-dimensional radar imager which is capable of “seeing through” dielectric materials such as fabrics and detecting concealed weapons and contraband, both metallic and non-metallic. The transceiver design effort will feature development of components such as frequency multipliers, amplifiers and mixers, and their electrical, mechanical, and thermal integration into a larger imaging system. This design phase will prioritize achieving cost, yield, and scalability metrics compatible with mass manufacture and widespread deployment. Key considerations involved in this effort are the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Dynamic Range (DR) of the system, both important metrics in imaging performance and therefore weapons detection capability. The project leverages recent advances in terahertz integrated circuit technology. The anticipated result is the experimental demonstration of such a component for integration into the fully functional imaging systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.