Journal
IEEE ACCESS
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages 174667-174678Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3025672
Keywords
Array antenna; microstrip technology; metamaterial; microwave breast imaging systems; biosensor; tumor detection; cancer; medical imaging
Categories
Funding
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Gobierno de Espana (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE) [RTI2018-095499-B-C31]
- Innovation Programme under Grant agreement H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 SECRET [722424]
- U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/E022936/1]
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This paper presents a study of a planar antenna-array inspired by the metamaterial concept where the resonant elements have sub-wavelength dimensions for application in microwave medical imaging systems for detecting tumors in biological tissues. The proposed antenna consists of square-shaped concentric-rings which are connected to a central patch through a common feedline. The array structure comprises several antennas that are arranged to surround the sample breast model. One antenna at a time in the array is used in transmission-mode while others are in receive-mode. The antenna array operates over 2-12 GHz amply covering the frequency range of existing microwave imaging systems. Measured results show that compared to a standard patch antenna array the proposed array with identical dimensions exhibits an average radiation gain and efficiency improvement of 4.8 dBi and 18%, respectively. The average reflection-coefficient of the array over its operating range is better than S-11 <= -20 dB making it highly receptive to weak signals and minimizing the distortion encountered with the transmission of short duration pulse-trains. Moreover, the proposed antenna-array exhibits high-isolation on average of 30dB between radiators. This means that antennas in the array (i) can be closely spaced to accommodate more radiators to achieve higher-resolution imaging scans, and (ii) the imagining scans can be done over a wider frequency range to ascertain better contrast in electrical parameters between malignant tumor-tissue and the surrounding normal breast-tissue to facilitate the detection of breast-tumor. It is found that short wavelength gives better resolution. In this experimental study a standard biomedical breast model that mimics a real-human breast in terms of dielectric and optical properties was used to demonstrate the viability of the proposed antenna over a standard patch antenna in the detection and the localization of tumor. These results are encouraging for clinical trials and further refinement of the antenna-array.
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