With recent advances in both algorithm and component technologies, through-the-wall sensing and imaging is emerging as an affordable sensor technology in civilian and military settings. One of the primary objectives of through-the-wall sensing systems is to detect and identify targets of interest, such as humans and cache of weapons, enclosed in building structures. Effective approaches that achieve proper target radar cross section (RCS) registration behind walls must, in general, exploit a detailed understanding of the radar phenomenology and more specifically, knowledge of the expected strength of the radar return from targets of interest. In this paper, we investigate the effects of various wall types on the received power of the target return through the use of a combined measurement and electromagnetic modeling approach. The RCS of material-exact rifle and human models are investigated in free-space using numerical electromagnetic modeling tools. A modified radar range equation, which analytically accounts for the wall effects, including multiple reflections within a given homogeneous or layered wall, is then employed in conjunction with wideband measured parameters of various common wall types, to estimate the received power versus frequency from the aforementioned targets. The proposed technique is, in principle, applicable to both bistatic and mono-static operations.

Date Published: 26 April 2010
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7669, Radar Sensor Technology XIV, 766909 (26 April 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.852655

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7669:
Radar Sensor Technology XIV
Kenneth I. Ranney; Armin W. Doerry, Editor(s)