1288 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 55, NO.

6, JUNE 2007

UWB Array-Based Sensor for Near-Field Imaging

Alexander G. Yarovoy, Senior Member, IEEE, Timofey G. Savelyev, Pascal J. Aubry,
Pidio Ekoue Lys, Member, IEEE, and Leo P. Ligthart, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, the development of an ultra-wideband array-based GPR has been realized,2 where a simple antenna
(UWB) array-based time-domain radar sensor for near-field beam focusing has been realized using programmable time de-
imaging is described. The radar sensor is designed to be used lays in four transmit and four receive antennas. Remarkably, all
within a vehicle-mounted multisensor system for humanitarian
demining. The main novelty of the radar lies in the system design the above-mentioned vehicle-based systems, except for those
with a single transmitter and multichannel receiver. Design of of [4], were designed for detection of antitank mines, which
the UWB antenna array is also novel. The radar produces 3-D typically have a cylindrical shape and a diameter larger than
images of subsurface by 1-D mechanical scanning. The imaging 25 cm. Detection of antipersonnel (AP) mines, which might
capability of the radar is realized via electronic steering of the be just a few centimeters in diameter, is a much more difficult
receive antenna footprint in a cross-scan direction and synthetic
aperture processing in an along-scan direction. Imaging via foot- task and, thus, requires much more complicated hardware and
print steering allows for a drastic increase in the scanning speed. software.
Numerous field trials of different GPR sensors have proven
Index Terms—Ground penetrating radar (GPR), landmine de-
tection, near-field imaging, ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna array. that, while for most soils, the GPR sensor can achieve a de-
sirable detectability level, the decrease of the false alarm rate
remains the most important task for GPR developers. This de-
I. INTRODUCTION crease can be achieved by improving the signal-to-clutter ratio
and via classification of detected targets with differentiation be-
tween landmines and mine-like objects. The former depends on

I T HAS been demonstrated that ground penetrating radar

(GPR) is a useful sensor for the multisensor system intended
for landmine detection, especially for humanitarian demining
the footprint size of the transmit and receive antennas and is de-
termined mainly by the hardware. The latter is done mainly in
signal processing, and one of the possible approaches here is
[1]. In order to avoid 2-D mechanical scanning over the surface target classification based on features extracted from 3-D im-
and to speed up the ground survey, a number of array-based ages of the subsurface [5]. Other approaches for target classifi-
GPRs have been developed (see, e.g., [2]–[4] and online1). cation can be found, for example, in [6]–[8].
In these systems, the array is formed by a number of parallel To verify the image-based classification approach, the
radars in which the number of transmit antennas is equal to the International Research Centre for Telecommunications–Trans-
number of receive ones. The mechanical scanning in the plane mission and Radar (IRCTR), Delft University of Technology,
of the array is replaced by sequential operation of the consti- Delft, The Netherlands, has developed a number of GPR
tuting radars. Despite a substantial increase of the survey speed systems dedicated to landmine detection [9]–[11]. These sys-
in comparison with 2-D mechanical scanning, this approach tems have demonstrated a high potential of developed GPR
still limits the scanning speed up to a few kilometers per hour. technology for classification of surface-laid and buried targets.
Furthermore, the sequential operation of the radars keeps the However, all the developed systems required 2-D mechanical
signal-to-clutter ratio for the whole system at the same level scanning for data acquisition.
as for a single system because the total footprint of the whole This paper describes a qualitatively new design of an array-
array remains a sum of the footprints of separate antennas, and based radar. In this design, a single radar sensor simultaneously
the low value of the signal-to-clutter ratio typically results in uses all antennas within the array in order to image the subsur-
the high false alarm rate. A more advanced approach to the face. The antenna system consists of a single transmit antenna
and a linear array of receive ones. The imaging is done by elec-
tronic scanning along the array with the receive-array footprint
Manuscript received October 4, 2006; revised March 16, 2007. This work was when the near-field focusing is done using true-time digital de-
supported by the Dutch Ministry of Defense under Contract DMO/HDM/DR&D
N01/26-10. lays.
The authors are with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics This paper is organized as follows. Design considerations for
and Computer Science, International Research Centre for Telecommuni- the system are presented in Section II. The development of a
cations–Transmission and Radar, Delft University of Technology, 2628CD
Delft, The Netherlands (e-mail: [email protected]; T.G.Save- novel antenna array is described in Section III, while the devel-
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; opment of electronics is described in Section IV. The imaging
[email protected]). algorithm is presented in Section V, and the first measurement
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. results are presented in Section VI. Main outputs of this study
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2007.896791 are then summarized in Section VII.
1[Online]. Available: http://www.humanitarian-demining.org/demining/de- 2GeoCenters EFGPR. [Online]. Available: http://www.geo-centers.com/
tection/niitek.asp?version=view products/EFGPR-Overview-1-03.pdf

0018-9480/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE

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YAROVOY et al.: UWB ARRAY-BASED SENSOR FOR NEAR-FIELD IMAGING 1289

Fig. 2. Developed antenna array. The total aperture of the array is 84 cm.

Fig. 1. Block scheme of the array radar.

III. ANTENNA ARRAY

II. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS A. General Approach

The main tasks for the antenna array are to measure target re-
We are aiming to a vehicle-based multisensor system for
sponses in the ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency range and to
landmine detection. For the GPR sensor, it means that the
provide near-field imaging of the subsurface by means of elec-
radar front-end should include an antenna array consisting of
tronic steering of the received field along the array. Since in the
a number of transmit and receive elements. In a traditional
near field the antenna’s radiation patterns are not yet formed,
approach, the number of transmit antennas is equal to the
the near-field focusing can be done only in terms of near-field
number of receive antennas. Keeping in mind that for AP mine
footprints, which describe spatial distribution of the electromag-
detection the scattered by subsurface field should be measured
netic (EM) field around the antenna in some particular plane. An
every 5–7 cm in both horizontal directions, the antenna array
ideal antenna element for such focusing should have a single
requires a large number of transmit–receive antenna pairs.
radiation center, which results in a quasi-circular footprint. Fol-
This results in a bulky antenna system (see, e.g., [4]) and lowing the Huygens principle, by combining a number of such
complicated hardware. antenna elements in an array and controlling the radiation time,
To avoid these problems, we suggest a novel approach to a it is possible to focus the EM field in a certain spatial area. If
system design [12], [13]. Firstly, the antenna array consists of the radiated signals are short transient pulses, then the focusing
a single transmit antenna and an array of receive antennas. The can be achieved not only in space, but also in time [14].
swath of such an array is limited by the footprint of the transmit Practical implementation of such an approach is, however,
antenna and the antenna array configuration. The scanning along difficult due to the need to generate a number of identical wave-
the array is then done not by sequential measurements via dif- forms and to synchronize them in time. Thus, we have decided
ferent Tx/Rx antenna pairs, but via focusing of the receive array to implement the same focusing idea, but only for EM field re-
footprint in the near field and scanning with this footprint along ception. For transmission, we have decided to use a single UWB
the array. Such an approach drastically reduces the data acqui- transmit antenna that should illuminate the whole area under in-
sition time, reduces the number of transmit antennas, simplifies vestigation with an ultra-short pulse. In order to remove influ-
the antenna system, and considerably simplifies the electronics. ence of the transmit antenna on the performance of the receive
Secondly, in order to improve the power budget of the radar at array and to decrease direct coupling between the transmit and
low frequencies (which are important for sufficiently deep pen- receive antennas (which, due to the finite dynamic range of a re-
etration into the ground), we select a special waveform of the ceiver, limits the receiver sensitivity), we separated the transmit
pulse fired by a generator. This waveform has a large spectral antenna and the receive array in the same way as we have done
content at low frequencies to compensate for the decrease of in our previously designed radars [9], [11]. As a result, the re-
the transmit antenna gain. ceive array is placed in the -plane of the transmit antenna with
Based on the above-mentioned design considerations, we de- 27-cm separation between the transmit antenna aperture and the
veloped a system that comprises a pulse generator, an antenna receive loops (Fig. 2).
array, a seven-channel signal conditioner, and an eight-channel High elevation of the transmit antenna gives us a number of
sampling converter. The generator also has the second (calibra- advantages, among them the following.
tion) output, which is used as a reference for compensation of 1) The waveform of the radiated field on the surface and in
time jitter and time drift. A block scheme of the array radar is the ground remains the same within the antenna footprint
shown in Fig. 1. at 10-dB level.
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1290 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 55, NO. 6, JUNE 2007

Fig. 4. Footprint (peak-to-peak value of the received voltage, shown in deci-

Fig. 3. Experimentally determined impulse response of the transmit antenna.
bels).

2) The waveform of the radiated field does not depend on the

type of the ground (i.e., its dielectric permittivity) as the
transmit antenna is fully decoupled from the ground.
3) The size of the antenna footprint at the air-ground interface
can be changed by varying the antenna elevation.

B. Transmit Antenna
For the transmit antenna, we chose the dielectric wedge an-
tenna [15] for which operational bandwidth, impulse response,
and footprint shape are best suited to the application in mind.
To make the footprint at low frequencies fully symmetrical, a
UWB balun [16] has been designed and added to the antenna.
When the antenna is excited with an ultra-short step pulse
(with a rise time of approximately 25 ps), it produces a response
with a duration of approximately 150 ps (on the half-amplitude
level) (Fig. 3). This response is determined mainly by the prop-
erties of the antenna itself and is very close to the impulse re-
Fig. 5. Sensitivity (in decibels with respect to 1 V) of different loops within
sponse of the antenna. the array. Loop diameter is 3 cm. The loop sensitivity is defined as a voltage in
As it can be seen in Fig. 4, the footprint (at a 10-dB level) of a perfectly matched load of the loop produced due to an incident electric field
the transmit antenna has a diameter of approximately 80 cm. The with strength of 1 V/m.
observed spatial distribution of the radiated signal is valid not
only for the peak-to-peak magnitude of the time-domain signal,
the time domain. Finally, the loop antenna has a single radiation
but also for different spectral components of the signal. This
center, of which the position is constant with frequency.
figure gives an indication for the maximal size of the received
As the loops are transparent for the incident wave, they can
array.
be placed beneath the transmit antenna in its -plane. While
being aligned in their -plane, the loops exhibit strong mutual
C. Receive Array Design
coupling. The coupling results in waveform distortion and cor-
The goals of the receive array design procedure were minimal relation of signals, received by different loops in the array, and at
mutual coupling between the elements (while keeping receive the end, it reduces focusing possibilities of an imaging system.
antenna separation smaller than a half-wavelength at the highest In order to analyze the impact of the coupling in detail, an array
operational frequency), maximal sensitivity of a single antenna of 13 loop antennas has been simulated.
element, and minimal end effects. We have decided to use the It has been found that the coupling results in an increase
shielded loop antenna [17] as a basic element of the array. At the of the loop sensitivity (with respect to an isolated loop) up to
frequencies above its first resonance, the loop has a relatively flat 10 dB in some relatively narrow frequency band (Fig. 5). The
sensitivity over a large frequency band [18]. Furthermore, the allocation of this frequency band depends on the loop separation
loop antenna has an aperture of the same order as a linear dipole, and loop diameter. With an increase of the loop separation or
but unlike the dipole, the loop possesses a very small ringing in loop diameter, the sensitivity peak due to the coupling shifts
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YAROVOY et al.: UWB ARRAY-BASED SENSOR FOR NEAR-FIELD IMAGING 1291

Finally, the number of loops in the array has been selected

based on the size of the transmit antenna footprint. The latter
determines how fast the amplitude of the illumination field de-
creases from the center towards the edges of the array. The re-
ceive antennas measure the field scattered by a target, and the
more measurements are done, the better should detection and
classification of the target be. However, if the target is situated
far from the transmit antenna, both the incident and scattered
fields will be too low to provide a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR) in the receiver. Based on this analysis and on the foot-
print of the transmit antenna, we conclude that the swath of the
miniarray can be as large as 84 cm. This size has determined the
total number of loops in the array to be 13.

IV. RADAR ELECTRONICS

Fig. 6. Measured ground reflection by the central loop in the array for different A. Pulse Generator
separation between the loops. Coupling in the array results in long ringing.
The choice of the operational bandwidth is one of the most
critical issues in GPR design. On one hand, at the frequencies
towards lower frequencies. Furthermore, the coupling slightly below 1 GHz, attenuation losses in the ground are small [19]
(up to 300 MHz) shifts the dip in the sensitivity towards low and considerable penetration depth can be achieved. On the
frequencies. Finally, the discrepancy between sensitivities of other hand, landmine detection requires down-range resolution
different loops does not vary considerably: the outmost side of the order of several centimeters in the ground, which can
loops have 4–5 dB smaller magnitude of the peak due to be achieved using operational bandwidth of more than 3 GHz.
the coupling and smaller dip shift. Based on these considerations, we have selected an operational
In the time domain, the loop response in free space to a short bandwidth from 500 MHz to 3 GHz as the minimum desired.
pulse, radiated by the transmit antenna, qualitatively repeats the This bandwidth can be covered using different waveforms,
waveform of the incident pulse [18]. The mutual coupling of the which have different energy distribution over this band. To
loops within the array results in additional ringing. This ringing improve the radar power budget at low frequencies, which are
looks like damped oscillations with a frequency determined by not efficiently radiated by the transmit antenna due to the rela-
the spike in the loop sensitivity due to the coupling (Fig. 6). The tively small size of its physical aperture, we wanted from the
magnitude and duration of the ringing for the central loop is, in generator output the highest spectral density at low frequencies.
general, larger that for the side loops. The second demand for the waveform selection was duration
EM simulations of the array have been used to optimize the of the received pulse. In order to find the optimal waveform,
array. The optimizing parameters were the loop radius and we compared three pulse generators with a step pulse, double
separation between the loops. The loops’ radius determines exponential pulse, and monopulse output [see Fig. 7(a)] in order
loop sensitivity and bandwidth: the smaller the loop radius, to determine the optimal output waveform for the developed
the larger its bandwidth and the smaller is its sensitivity. It antenna array. The waveforms of the probing pulses (pulses
should be noticed that technologically it is very difficult to radiated by the transmit antennas) and their spectra are shown
manufacture loops with a diameter smaller than 3 cm from in Fig. 7(b) and (c), respectively. The waveforms of the radiated
a semirigid cable. pulses have been calculated from the signals measured by a
The loop’s diameter and separation between the loops also 3-cm loop using a deconvolution procedure [20].
determine the frequency at which the loop’s sensitivity has a The double-exponential pulse provides the largest spectral
spike, and in this way, they determine magnitude and duration content at low frequencies (while normalized to the common
of the ringing. If the upper frequency of the pulse is lower than absolute maximum), the largest bandwidth, the largest ampli-
the frequency at which the loop’s sensitivity has a spike, the tude of the radiated pulse, moderate late-time ringing, and the
resonant coupling mechanism between the loops is not excited heaviest early-time ringing. In order to achieve the same peak
and the ringing is low. If the resonant coupling is excited, then amplitude as by the double exponential pulse, the magnitude of
the smaller the distance between the loops is, the shorter the the step pulse should be increased 5 , becoming 2.5 larger
duration of the ringing due to the coupling between the antennas, than the double-exponential one.
and the larger the magnitude of the ringing. The step pulse provides the maximal spectral content at low
Trading off the operational bandwidth, the loop sensitivity, frequencies (while normalized to the relative maximum), the
the duration of the ringing, and its magnitude, we selected 5 cm second largest bandwidth, the smallest amplitude of the radiated
as an optimal separation between the antenna elements. How- pulse, and the heaviest late-time ringing. In order to achieve the
ever, due to mechanical constrains related to the positioning of same peak amplitude as by the double exponential pulse, the
the feeding cables within the array, it was possible to achieve magnitude of the step pulse should be increased 5 becoming
the minimal separation of 7 cm. 2 larger than the double-exponential one.
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1292 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 55, NO. 6, JUNE 2007

lowest early- and late-time ringing. In order to achieve the same

peak amplitude as by the double exponential pulse, the magni-
tude of the monopulse should be increased 1.625 , becoming
0.8 larger than the double-exponential one.
Trying to maximize the radar power budget at frequencies
below 1 GHz, we tuned the rise time and pulse duration of the
double-exponential generator and ended with a duration of ap-
proximately 41 ps (on half-amplitude level) and magnitude of
approximately 40 V. As a result, the probing pulse has a band-
width from 0.5 to 3.3 GHz at a 3-dB level of the bandwidth
and moderate ringing. This generator also has the second output
(for calibration), which is used as a reference for compensation
of time jitter and time drift.

B. Receiver
(a)
The receiver chain consists of a switch, a seven-channel
signal conditioner, and an eight-channel sampling converter
(built by GeoZondas Ltd., Vilnius, Lithuania). The receiver
chain has an analog bandwidth from 200 MHz up to 6 GHz and
a linear dynamic range of 53 dB (without averaging).
The switch commutates 12 receive antennas to six channels
of the signal conditioner. The central loop is connected directly
(by passing the switch) to the fourth channel of the signal condi-
tioner. The other six channels of the signal conditioner are con-
nected either to the six most internal loops (forming together
with a central loop an equidistant array of seen loops) or to the
three most left and three most right loops.
An important part of the receiver chain is the signal condi-
tioner. It consists of seven low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) with a
gain of 15 dB and a soft clipping. The signal conditioner im-
proves the SNR and makes it possible to use the whole dynamic
range of the ADC. The equivalent noise floor (which includes
(b) the discretization noise of ADC) of the receiver is less than
0.75-mV rms without averaging. The spectrum of the noise al-
most corresponds to white noise; thus, it can be efficiently sup-
pressed by averaging. The signal conditioner decreases the noise
floor and improves the SNR by almost 20 dB.
The sampling converter operates with a sampling rate of
525 kHz per channel. This high sampling rate results for
fast data acquisition and allows for fast scanning with an
array. The maximal scanning speed might be as high as 148
km/h, which is too high for such application as humanitarian
demining. However, this substantial reserve in the scanning
speed allows for implementing averaging over a number of
received pulses and, thus, for reduction of the noise floor of
the radar (which is determined by the discretization noise of
the ADC) proportionally to the square root of the averaging
number.
The observation time window can be varied from 32 ps to
(c) 20 ns with a number of acquisition points available from 16
to 4096. Large flexibility in selection of the observation time
Fig. 7. Waveforms of generator’s: (a) outputs, (b) waveforms, and (c) spectra window and the sampling time allows us to adjust the system
of the transmitted field for different generators. to various soils and data acquisition scenario. A very important
feature of the sampling converter is its high measurement
The 50-ps monopulse provides the smallest spectral content accuracy. The maximal error in the amplitude scale and the
at low frequencies (for any normalization), the smallest band- time scale linearity of the sampling converter is approximately
width, the moderate amplitude of the radiated pulse, and the 1%.
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YAROVOY et al.: UWB ARRAY-BASED SENSOR FOR NEAR-FIELD IMAGING 1293

Fig. 8. Power budget of the radar. The diamond corresponds to the reflection
from a sand surface, while the rectangle and star correspond to scattering from
a metal cylinder, which is flash laid beneath the central loop (rectangle) and
beneath the right-most loop of the array (star).

C. Overall Hardware Performance

The power budget of the radar is described in Fig. 8. The
solid line corresponds to the largest signal (peak-to-peak
value), which can be linearly processed in the analog part of Fig. 9. Imaging geometry for the array GPR.
the front-end and accurately measured. The dotted line corre-
sponds to the direct coupling between the transmit and receive
array channel is being focused onto line after which we
antennas. This is the signal with the largest magnitude. In
perform summation of the focused signals of all channels for
order to efficiently use the linear dynamic range of the receiver,
this line.
this signal is softly clipped by the signal conditioner. Dashed
In terms of phased antenna arrays, summation of the channels
lines 1 and 2 correspond to the weakest signal, which can be
represents digital synthesis of the array pattern with its max-
distinguished from the discretization noise in the receive mode
imum directed at . For the near-field case, it is equiv-
without averaging. Dashed line 1 corresponds to the maximal
alent to the digital steering of the array footprint. Instead of lin-
scanning speed of 148 km/h, while dashed line 2 corresponds
early progressive phase shift, our footprint steering is based on
to scanning speed of 5 km/h. It can be seen that the ground
the travel times, which do not have a linear relationship between
reflection (in this case, dry sand) lies very close to the level of
the array channels. A combination of the SAR in the scan direc-
the maximal linearly processed signal, thus allowing accurate
tion and footprint steering in the array’s plane delivers a 3-D
measurements of surface-laid targets. The magnitude of a target
image of the target.
return depends on a target position with respect to the transmit
Prior to imaging, we perform data pre-processing that in-
antenna, but as can be seen from this figure, these variations are
cludes low-pass filtering of the raw data to suppress uncorre-
of the order of a few decibels.
lated noise, alignment of the direct coupling in every B-scan
The signal processing gain is not included in this power
to compensate for time drift, and background subtraction to re-
budget. However, the imaging algorithm by simultaneous
move direct coupling and ground surface reflection.
processing of all 13 received signals gives an additional im-
A very important issue in array imaging is calibration of the
provement up to 22 dB.
system. For that we use a small metal sphere (2-cm diameter)
V. IMAGING ALGORITHM placed under the central loop. A key SAR parameter, a so-called
“zero time,” is adjusted for every channel to image the sphere in
The imaging procedure combines a synthetic aperture radar
the correct position.
(SAR) algorithm with the digital steering of the receive array
footprint. The synthetic aperture is being constructed in the di-
VI. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
rection of mechanical scanning for each array channel sepa-
rately with a so-called diffraction stacking algorithm [21] The performance of the system has been tested at the TNO
DS-S premises, The Hague, The Netherlands [22]. The receive
array has been elevated approximately 20 cm above the ground,
(1)
which is a dry sand. The measured dielectric permittivity of the
sand is 3.03. The short duration of the transmitted signal [see
where is a travel time for the grid-point , Fig. 7(b)] results in high down-range resolution of the radar. The
and expresses travel time for the same depth grid points waveform of the target response keeps its shape while measured
. In this processing, the coordinate system starts by different loops in the array. This feature is very important for
in the transmit antenna’s phase center: -axis expresses depth, application of the focusing algorithms to the measured data.
-axis corresponds to the mechanical scan direction, and - Fig. 10 illustrates a resolution capability of the array. Two
and -axis represents the cross-scan direction. The travel times metal discs of 5-cm diameter placed on the ground surface and
are computed as a two-way time delay between the transmit separated by 7 cm between the edges are completely resolved.
antenna, a grid point, and every receive antenna (Fig. 9). Every The minimum intensity between two images is more than 20 dB
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1294 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 55, NO. 6, JUNE 2007

The approach has been verified experimentally by manufac-

turing a “proof-of-principle” demonstrator based on the time-
domain technology. The application in mind is humanitarian
demining. The radar possesses a bandwidth of approximately
3.56 GHz and the operational band starts at 240 MHz. This re-
sults in a combination of fine down-range resolution with suf-
ficient penetration into the ground for detection of buried tar-
gets. Using the near-field footprint formation in the cross-scan
direction and synthetic aperture focusing in the scan direction,
the radar provides 3-D focused images of the near-field area.
The maximal scanning speed of the system is 148 km/h, which
is almost two orders of magnitude higher than by existing sys-
tems. The cross-range resolution of the images is approximately
Fig. 10. Image of two metal discs with 5-cm diameter separated by 7 cm. Image 5 cm, which is sufficient for an application such as humanitarian
intensity is in a linear scale. demining. The swath of these images is approximately 84 cm.
A combination of the above-mentioned figures-of-merits allows
us to discuss a technological breakthrough in the field.
The first experimental results have shown that the system suc-
cessfully images AP mines. In the next stage of the research
program, dedicated software for image processing, localization,
and classification of targets will be embedded into the system.
The developed approach can be successfully used in other
applications such as medical imaging, area surveillance, road
and runway inspection, and others.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Dr. B. Levitas, GeoZondas
Fig. 11. Image of two PMN2 AP landmines buried at a depth of 5 cm in sand. Ltd., Vilnius, Lithuania, for fruitful cooperation and help during
Image intensity is given in decibels.
the development of the radar electronics and J. H. Zijderveld,
P. Hakkaart, and M. van der Wel, all with the Delft University
of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, for their technical as-
below the intensity in the centers of the disks. Furthermore, it is sistance during antenna measurements, system assembling and
still possible to resolve the discs for 5-cm separation at a 6-dB testing.
level.
Fig. 11 demonstrates a capability of the array to image buried
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ysis for forward-looking landmine detection using GPR,” in Proc. SPIE
isting systems should be gained by electronic steering of the Detection and Remediation Technol. for Mines and Minelike Targets X,
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YAROVOY et al.: UWB ARRAY-BASED SENSOR FOR NEAR-FIELD IMAGING 1295

[9] A. G. Yarovoy et al., “Ground penetrating impulse radar for detection Timofey G. Savelyev was born in Frunze, U.S.S.R.,
of small and shallow-buried objects,” in Proc. IGARSS’99, Hamburg, in 1974. He received the Dipl.-Eng. degree (cum
Germany, Jun. 1999, vol. 5, pp. 2468–2470. laude) in radio electronics from the Baltic State
[10] P. van Genderen et al., “A multi-frequency radar for detecting land- Technical University, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1997,
mines: Design aspects and electrical performance,” in Proc. 31st Eur. and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
Microw. Conf., Oct. 2001, vol. 2, pp. 249–252. the State University of Aerospace Instrumentation,
[11] A. G. Yarovoy, L. P. Ligthart, A. Schukin, and I. Kaploun, “Polari- St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2000. His doctoral research
metric video impulse radar for landmine detection,” Subsurface Sens. concerned adaptive array radar systems.
Technol. and Applicat., vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 271–293, Oct. 2002. He has since been involved in the field of GPR
[12] A. Yarovoy, P. Aubry, P. Lys, and L. Ligthart, “UWB array-based radar landmine detection as a Visiting Scientist with Vrije
for landmine detection,” in Proc. 3rd Eur. Radar Con., Manchester, Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, in 2002, and
U.K., Sep. 13–15, 2006, pp. 186–189. as a research associate with the Centre for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku Uni-
[13] A. Yarovoy, P. Aubry, P. Lys, and L. Ligthart, “Array-based GPR for versity, Sendai, Japan, from 2003 to 2005. He is currently a Post-Doctorate Re-
landmine detection,” in Proc. 11th Int. Ground Penetrating Radar searcher with the International Research Centre for Telecommunications–Trans-
Conf., Columbus, OH, Jun. 19–22, 2006, pp. 1–6. mission and Radar (IRCTR), Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Nether-
[14] R. W. Ziolkowski, “Properties of electromagnetic beams generated lands. His current research interests include GPR landmine detection, UWB
by ultra-wide bandwidth pulse-driven arrays,” IEEE Trans. Antennas array radars, UWB signal processing and analysis, and radar imaging.
Propag., vol. 40, no. 8, pp. 888–905, Aug. 1992.
[15] A. G. Yarovoy, A. D. Schukin, I. V. Kaploun, and L. P. Ligthart, “The
dielectric wedge antenna,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 50, no.
10, pp. 1460–1472, Oct. 2002. Pascal J. Aubry was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses,
[16] K. D. Palmer, J. H. Zijderveld, and A. G. Yarovoy, “Differential an- France, on the March 8, 1969. He received the
tenna feeding system for short range UWB radar,” in Eur. Radar Conf., D.E.S.S. degree in electronics and automatics from
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2004, pp. 21–24. the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6), Paris,
[17] J. J. Goedbloed, Electromagnetische compabiliteit; analyse en onder- France, in 1993.
drukking van storproblemen. Norwell, MA: Kluwer, 1990. Following his military service in the Air Force
[18] A. G. Yarovoy, R. V. de Jongh, and L. P. Ligthart, “Ultra-wideband in 1994, he was a Young Graduate Trainee with the
sensor for electromagnetic field measurements in time domain,” Elec- European Space Research and Technology Centre
tron. Lett., vol. 36, no. 20, pp. 1679–1680, Sep. 2000. (ESTEC), in 1996, where he was involved with
[19] R. J. Chignell, H. Dabis, N. Frost, and S. Wilson, “The radar require- antenna measurements. Since 1997, he has been with
ments for detecting anti-personnel mines,” in 8th Int. SPIE Ground Pen- the International Research Centre for Telecommu-
etrating Radar Conf., May 2000, vol. 4084, pp. 861–866. nications–Transmission and Radar (IRCTR), Delft University of Technology
[20] T. G. Savelyev, L. van Kempen, and H. Sahli, “Deconvolution tech- (TUD), Delft, The Netherlands. His interests include antenna measurement
niques,” in Ground Penetrating Radar, ser. Radar, Sonar, Navigation, techniques in the frequency and time domains and GPR system testing.
and Avion. 15, D. J. Daniels, Ed., 2nd ed. London, U.K.: IEE Press,
2004, pp. 298–310.
[21] J. Groenenboom and A. G. Yarovoy, “Data processing and imaging
in GPR system dedicated for landmine detection,” Subsurface Sens.
Technol. Applicat., vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 387–402, Oct. 2002. Pidio Ekoue Lys (M’05) was born in Kara, Togo, in
[22] V. Kovalenko, A. Yarovoy, L. P. Ligthart, P. Hakkaart, and J. 1978. He received the B.S. degree in applied physics
Rhebergen, “Joint IRCTR/TNO-DS&S measurement campaign for and M.S. degree in electronics for telecommunica-
AP-mine detection with VIR GPR,” in Proc. 3rd Int. Adv. Ground tions from Paris VI University, Paris, France in 2002
Penetrating Radar Workshop, Delft, The Netherlands, May 2005, pp. and 2004, respectively.
31–36. In 2004, he was a Visiting Scholar with the
Telecom-Paris School. He developed a UWB
antenna for pulsed applications. He then joined
Completude-Objectif Maths, Paris, France, as
Educational Support in Mathematics and Physical
Sciences for high school students from 2003 to
2005. In 2005, he joined the International Research Centre for Telecommunica-
Alexander G. Yarovoy (M’96–SM’04) received tions–Transmission and Radar (IRCTR), Delft University of Technology, Delft,
the Diploma degree in radiophysics and electronics The Netherlands, where he is currently an Engineer. His research interests
(with honors) and the Cand. Phys., Math. Sci., and include antenna system design and signal processing for polarimetric radar.
Dr. Phys. degrees in radiophysics from the Kharkov
State University, Kharkov, Ukraine, in 1984, 1987,
and 1994, respectively.
In 1987, he joined the Department of Radio- Leo P. Ligthart (M’94–SM’95–F’02) was born in
physics, Kharkov State University, as a Researcher, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on September 15, 1946.
and became a Professor in 1997. From September He received the Engineer’s degree (cum laude) and
1994 to 1996, he was a Visiting Researcher with Doctor of Technology degree from the Delft Univer-
the Technical University of Ilmenau, Ilmenau, sity of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, in 1969
Germany. Since 1999, he has been with the International Research Centre for and 1985, respectively, the Doctorate degree (honoris
Telecommunications–Transmission and Radar (IRCTR), Delft University of causa) from the Moscow State Technical University
Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, where he coordinates all UWB-related of Civil Aviation, Moscow, Russia, in 1999, and the
projects. His main research interests is UWB technology and its applications Doctorate degree (honoris causa) from Tomsk State
(in particular, UWB radars) and applied electromagnetics (in particular, UWB University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics,
antennas). Tomsk, Russia, in 2001.
Prof. Yarovoy served as the co-chairman and the Technical Program Com- Since 1992, he has held the Chair of Microwave Transmission, Radar and
mittee chair for the 10th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar Remote Sensing with the Department of Information Technology and Systems,
(GPR2004), Delft, The Netherlands, and as the secretary of the 1st European Delft University of Technology. In 1994, he became Director of the Interna-
Radar Conference (EuRAD’04), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He was the re- tional Research Center for Telecommunications and Radar, Delft University of
cipient of a 1996 International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientists Technology. His principal areas of specialization include antennas and propaga-
Award and the 2001 European Microwave Week Radar Award for the paper that tion and radar and remote sensing. He has also been active in satellite, mobile,
best advances the state-of-the-art in radar technology. and radio communications.

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