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In the process industry, measurement systems are required for process development and optimization, as well as for monitoring and control. The processes often involve multiphase mixtures or flows that can be analyzed using tomography systems, which visualize the spatial material distribution within a certain measurement domain, e.g., a process pipe. In recent years, we studied the applicability of soft-field electromagnetic tomography methods for multiphase flow imaging, focusing on concepts for high-speed data acquisition and image reconstruction. Different non-intrusive electrical impedance and microwave tomography systems were developed at our institute, which are sensitive to the local contrasts of the electrical properties of the materials. These systems offer a very high measurement and image reconstruction rate of up to 1000 frames per second in conjunction with a dynamic range of up to 120 dB. This paper provides an overview of the underlying concepts and recent improvements in terms of sensor design, data acquisition and signal processing. We introduce a generalized description for modeling the electromagnetic behavior of the different sensors based on the finite element method (FEM) and for the reconstruction of the electrical property distribution using the Gauss-Newton method and Newton's one-step error reconstructor (NOSER) algorithm. Finally, we exemplify the applicability of the systems for different measurement scenarios. They are suitable for the analysis of rapidly-changing inhomogeneous scenarios, where a relatively low spatial resolution is sufficient.

Microwave imaging (MWI) is a noninvasive diagnosis method, which has been investigated for a wide range of applications. MWI techniques include radar-based approaches as well as microwave tomography (MWT). One major challenge designing broadband MWI systems is the development of a data acquisition unit that allows for fast broadband scattering parameter measurements with a high measurement precision and a high dynamic range (DR), at reasonable cost. The cost-performance criteria cannot readily be achieved using commercial, continuous wave (CW) vector network analyzers (VNA) or pulse-based systems. Therefore, in this paper we propose a data acquisition unit, based on the well-known method of frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) network analysis. It offers fast scattering parameter measurements without compromising the measurement precision and the DR, and is particularly advantageous for MWI systems requiring a high number of frequency samples. A 2-port metadyne prototype electronics with low hardware complexity was developed, which allows very fast, precise, and accurate reflection and transmission measurements in the frequency range from 0.5 GHz to 5.5 GHz. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a system with combined performance in terms of bandwidth, sweep time (1 ms), DR (80 dB) and maximum signal-to-noise-and-spurious ratio (65 dB) has not previously been reported. The design, the calibration, and the characterization of the prototype electronics are described in detail, and the measurement results are compared to those obtained with commercial high-end CW VNA. The advantages and limitations of the metadyne FMCW technique compared to the heterodyne CW technique are discussed. The applicability of the prototype electronics and the described calibration technique for microwave imaging has been demonstrated based on measurements using an 8-port MWT sensor and a switching matrix.

A method for the calibration of an ultra-wideband microwave tomography system is presented. The objective for this measurement system is to calculate the spatial distribution of the dielectric parameters and thereby different materials. Scattering parameters are used to describe the setup and are given to the reconstruction algorithm for evaluation. The measured wave parameters of this system are influenced by the measurement instrument as well as by the setup itself. In addition, it is also necessary for the reconstruction to obtain the scattering parameters at a well defined reference plane. Both requirements can be achieved by the help of a multiport error correction algorithm used for the calibration of a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA). In a first step, an error model for the tomographic system is presented. Secondly, this paper provides a concept for calibration standards which can be used for this application. Since a tomographic system do not offer the possibility for the use of classic reflection standards or a change in the mechanical length of the transmission other calibration standards have to be found. The idea of a homogeneous filling of the tomograph is presented. With the help of a simulation model the requirements for the system as well as the accuracy of the results are analyzed. In addition, measurement results are shown to validate the proposed approach.