A scanned beam THz imaging system for medical applications

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 cm2 area with 1 mm2 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.