A Survey of Radar Systems for Medical Applications

A survey of radar systems used in the medical field is presented. First, medical applications of radars are described, and some emerging research fields are highlighted. Then, medical radars are analyzed in terms of block diagrams and behavioral equations and some implementations are shown as examples. A section is dedicated to the radiating structures used in these radars. Finally, human safety and environmental impact issues are addressed. The most investigated medical applications of radars are breast tumor diagnostics and remote monitoring of cardiorespiratory activity. New fields of interest are physiological liquid detection, and the monitoring of artery walls and vocal cord movements. Among the various topologies, continuous wave (CW) radars have been proven to yield the highest range resolution that is limited only by the system noise while the resolution of ultra wideband (UWB) and frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radars is also related to the used frequency bandwidth. Concerning the maximum range, UWB radars have the best performance due to their ability to operate in the presence of environmental clutter. As for the radiating structures, planar antennas are preferred for diagnostic applications, due to their small dimensions and good matching when placed in contact with the human body. Radar systems for remote monitoring, instead, are designed by using high gain antennas and taking into account the complex radar cross section (RCS) of the body.