Personnel and Mail Screening with Millimeter Waves

Conference · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005

OSTI ID:877027

McMakin, Douglas L; Sheen, David M; Griffin, Jeffrey W; Valentine, Nancy B; Lechelt, Wayne M

The detection and interdiction of biological and chemical warfare agents at point-of-entry military, government, and civilian facilities remains a high priority for security personnel. Commercial personnel and mail screening technologies for these harmful agents are still being developed and improved upon to meet all security client requirements. Millimeter-wave holographic imaging technology developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is an ideal sensor to interrogate objects concealed behind low dielectric barriers such as paper, cardboard, and clothing. It uses harmless millimeter waves to illuminate the object or person under surveillance. The waves penetrate through the low dielectric barrier and either reflects off or pass through the hidden object, depending on its material dielectric properties. The reflected signals are digitized and sent to high-speed computers to form high-resolution, three-dimensional (3-D) images. Feasibility imaging studies have been conducted to determine whether simulated biological or chemical agents concealed in mail packages or under clothing could be detected using holographic radar imaging techniques. The results of this study will be presented in this paper.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 877027
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-44121; 400470000; TRN: US200608%%370
• Resource Relation: Conference: Sensors,and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C31) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense IV. SPIE Proceedings, 5778((Pt 1-2)):160-168
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
CLOTHING
COMMUNICATIONS
COMPUTERS
DETECTION
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
PERSONNEL
RADAR
SECURITY
SECURITY PERSONNEL
Millimeter Waves
Mail Screening
Personnel Surveillance
Holography
Imaging