A Microwave Imaging System for Inline Food Inspection

Microwave imaging (MWI) is a promising technology that can be exploited for the industrial development of realtime, noninvasive and nondestructive inline inspection systems, in the context of foreign body detection. Here, the aim is to assess the use of MWI to detect the presence of physical contaminants within packaged food products, through the retrieval of 3D images displaying the dielectric contrast of the analyzed item. For this purpose, we propose a microwave imaging system made of an antenna array to scan the tested product and detect the interaction of the contaminant with the incident electromagnetic signal. The designed antennas are wide-band horn antennas placed along the production line and around the item under test. Then, a numerical validation of the implemented inversion operators is detailed for a dynamic scenario. The obtained results offer a potentially effective outcome for a practical implementation and testing of the proposed system on production lines.