An imaging system includes a scanning reflector that sweeps through a
periodic scan pattern to redirect millimeter wave energy from a target
object to a detector. The imaging system may include one or more
millimeter wave lenses that gather and focus the millimeter wave energy
from the target object onto the reflector or the detector. The detector is
super-cooled to increases sensitivity, so that the imaging system does not
require an illumination source. For each location on the target object,
the detector monitors the intensity of the millimeter wave energy and an
electronic controller builds a memory map from the detector data. Because
different materials block millimeter wave energy differently, the detector
data, and thus the memory map corresponds to the structure of the target
object. In one embodiment, the scanning reflector is a resonant scanner.
The scanner may be a microelectromechanical (MEMs) or mesomechanical
scanner.