SBIR Phase I: Terahertz Imaging Radar for Law Enforcement

SBIR 第一阶段：用于执法的太赫兹成像雷达

• 批准号: 2301538
• 负责人: Nathan Monroe
• 金额: $ 27.49万
• 依托单位: CAMBRIDGE TERAHERTZ INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2301538&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Terahertz; Imaging; Radar

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.

这项小型企业创新研究的更广泛的影响/广告，以掩盖威胁检测，武器暴力和大规模的群体越来越多。该解决方案在纳普x亿美元的市场中解决了公认的需求，包括执法场所（例如机场扫描仪和演练金属探测器）扫描仪在展示Terahertz雷达收发器时，I阶段的努力将使此关键的Forit应用程序及以后的关键技术要素脱颖而出。 ，制造和测试Terahertz雷达收发器，一个关键的组件n目前在公开市场上购买的方法中使用了该方法。成像系统的结果将是REE维雷达成像仪，能够通过介质材料（例如织物和检测隐藏的武器和违禁品），包括金属和非金属材料。例如频率乘数，放大器和混合器及其电气，机械和热整合到较大的成像系统中。系统的动态范围（DR），既有成像性能的重要指标，又是武器检测项目，该项目利用了Terahertz电路技术的最新进展。值得支持基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评估标准的支持HRUSE评估。