A scanned beam THz imaging system for medical applications
2011
THz medical imaging has been a topic of increased interest recently due largely to improvements in source and detector
technology and the identification of suitable applications. One aspect of THz medical imaging research not often
adequately addressed is pixel acquisition rate and phenomenology. The majority of active THz imaging systems use
translation stages to raster scan a sample beneath a fixed THz beam. While these techniques have produced high
resolution images of characterization targets and animal models they do not scale well to human imaging where
clinicians are unwilling to place patients on large translation stages. This paper presents a scanned beam THz imaging
system that can acquire a 1 cm 2 area with 1 mm 2 pixels and a per-pixel SNR of 40 dB in less than 5 seconds. The system
translates a focused THz beam across a stationary target using a spinning polygonal mirror and HDPE objective lens.
The illumination is centered at 525 GHz with ~ 125 GHz of response normalized bandwidth and the component layout is
designed to optically co-locate the stationary source and detector ensuring normal incidence across a 50 mm × 50 mm
field of view at standoff of 190 mm. Component characterization and images of a test target are presented. These
results are some of the first ever reported for a short standoff, high resolution, scanned beam THz imaging system and
represent an important step forward for practical integration of THz medical imaging where fast image acquisition times
and stationary targets (patients) are requisite.
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