Clutter analysis in a time-domain millimeter-wave reflectometry setup

In this work, we study the clutter and multi-path propagation in a time-domain millimeter-wave reflectometry setup, used for material characterization or short-range imaging. The signal energy and fidelity factor of the different reflection components is analyzed in dependence of the distance from the target. Due to the change in pulse distortion in the multi-path components, the system impulse response is dependent on the target position. The principal reflection from the target on the other hand is only influenced by the path loss. By coherent superposition we are able to separate the target reflection from the static system clutter and multi-path reflections in the setup.