Frequency modulated thermal wave imaging for visualizing power density of electromagnetic waves on plane surfaces

ABSTRACTIn this article, Frequency Modulated Thermal Wave Imaging (FMTWI) [1–6] is introduced for the first time for determining power distribution of electromagnetic waves on plane surfaces. The advantage with this technique is that we can extract multiple amplitude and phase images from a single run of experiment. The applied excitation signal in this technique is a frequency modulated chirp signal instead of a single frequency signal used in conventional lock-in infrared (IR) thermography [7–11].The thermal images obtained using FMTWI can be used qualitatively, e.g., to detect field leakage near electromagnetic junctions and microstrip feed lines. As a practical demonstration of this technique, an example of 2 × 2 patch antenna array at 8 GHz is considered. First, amplitude images at various modulation frequencies are obtained. Next, signal to noise ratio (SNR) values at each frequency are calculated. It is seen that SNR is lower at higher frequencies. It is observed that at higher modulation frequenci...