Physical temperature sensing of targets with shelters under indoor scenes by a revised Ku band microwave radiometer

Abstract

This work is aimed to solve technical difficulties for microwave radiometers in Ku band and above under indoor scenes to detect physical temperatures of targets with shelters. Firstly, a revised microwave radiometer in Ku-band is developed with a novel calibration scheme. Secondly, in order to the designed radiometer pocess a high temperature accuracy for targets with shelters, crucial technical difficulties are investigated: 1) The long-neglected impact on temperature sensitivity of the single channel radiometer by the frequency stability of LO is analyzed and a LO with high frequency stability and small volume is designed. 2) The calibration accuracy deterioration caused by the receiver's nonideality is analyzed, and a novel calibration algorithm is proposed. 3) the method of plane wave spectrum (PWS) is proposed to derive the planar electric field in near field of the horn antenna for temperature inversion. 4) A more complete microwave thermal radiation transmission model of clothed human body is proposed. Thirdly, several experiments are set up and show that the designed radiometer can track physical temperatures of targets sheltered by cotton cloth relatively accurately, so that methods proposed for indoor near field applications are confirmed effective. Noteworthily, it is the first time in the microwave passive sensing domain that our work systematically proposes the temperature inversion theory for physical temperatures of targets with shelters accurately in noncontact under indoor scenes, and the design scheme for the microwave radiometer optimized portable along with a high temperature sensitivity applied for microwave security and medical monitoring.