Emerging technology sees through clothing
SAN FRANCISCO — Security in airports and other sensitive areas may get a huge boost, thanks to a technology under development that is straight out of science fiction, said to be capable of looking through clothing to detect weapons and other dangerous items. But privacy advocates—and shy people—may have cause for alarm.Millimeter-wave technology researchers at Northrop-Grumman Space Technology are developing a technology said to enable small cameras to look through clothing and other inert materials to detect weapons or other contraband. This technology, known as passive millimeter-wave (PMMW) technology, can also see through heavy clouds in order to perform aerial surveillance on bad weather days, according materials provided by the organizers of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Northrop-Grumman researchers plan to present a paper on PMMW at ISSCC here in February 2007.
PMMW involves very-high-frequency amplifiers running at frequencies up to 300 gigahertz and detectors capable of sensing and processing picowatt power levels. Northrop-Grumman researchers plan to describe achieving a 2.5-decibel gain at 300 GHz, the highest-frequency active ICs ever reported, according to the ISSCC organizers. Operating at these frequencies required the use of indium-phosphide (InP) technology with 75- and 35-nanometer features sizes, as well as lenses and detectors capable of processing millimeter-wavelength radiation, according to the organizers.
The amplifiers used in PMMW are built with InP high-electron mobility transistors and are used in the front end of passive imaging cameras, according to advance copy promoting the Northrop-Grumman paper.
Source: EETimes
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Anyone remember that scene in Total Recall where Douglas Quaid/Hauser (Arnold Schwarzenegger) runs through that scanner in the airport, and it shows the gun under his clothing?
Funny how movies can so often be a prelude to real life technology. Star Trek is a prime example of this.